For the eyes of a Principal/Headteacher

On Being a Headmaster/Principal

From my journal, 1976. When I left one school to take on another, I made a list of what I thought I had learned when running Robert Bakewell SC School.................and, this morning, when reading it, I thought it might be of interest to those currently in the role of Head/Principal of school. Or it might amuse them.

THINGS I LEARNED ON THE JOB – in no particular order of importance:

         First of all, make sure you remember that you, the Head of the school, are always on show. You set the example. Wherever you are, in and out of school. So, always look the part, sound the part, and do what Mr/Mrs Everyman and their child expects of a Headteacher.  Don't, for example, go to local pubs or restaurants at night or over the weekend. Don't smoke in public. That is not what parents want to see! Do, though, shop in local shops, especially at weekends, but wear your Headmaster’s suit.

       As important, perhaps even more so, make sure you have, as your highest priority, the safety and comfort of your kids and staff, in and around the school building.

         
OK, here's the list:

• Always be the first to arrive at school in the morning and, whenever possible, the last to leave in the evening.
•   Make sure your teachers/assistants/helpers have everything they need in order to do what they think is important in their classrooms.
•          Resource each teacher's personal teaching style. Don’t penny-pinch. Give them what they need to teach. Consequently, make sure your PTA is active and always looking for ways to financially support your teachers.
•          Co-teach when possible – then give teachers relevant and useful feedback after you spend a good deal of time in their classrooms.
• And, when you do, don’t micromanage! Full ownership of one’s classroom is a key factor in a teacher’s success with his/her class.
•          Meet every teacher once a month in and around their teaching areas for one on one conversation where s/he feels respected and have chance to reflect on what’s going on in his/her classroom. During that time, ask to see his/her favorite lesson.
•          Tell teachers, in a quiet, private area, about parental complaints that involve them. Convey that the discussion remains private and confidential.
•          Take over a class if a teacher seems unduly stressed – this, in a respectful manner, gives the teacher time to catch his/her breath.
•          Keep teachers, parents and governors informed and up-to-date on school matters that affect everyone.
•          Don't use short-term subs – take over a class if a teacher is away for the day, perhaps on a course or on sick leave. That way, you keep your hand in, as a teacher, you see the realities of the classroom,  AND, it gives you far more credibility when talking at staff meetings or when giving feedback to individual teachers. It also means you walk in their shoes, meaning you can answer parent criticisms much better when you know what the teacher faces each and every day.
•          Be available to staff and parents. Always. 
•          As Headmaster, everyone expects you to appear in control – so, when things get a bit tough, don’t let anyone know what’s going on in your mind. Well, make sure your Deputy knows what’s going on behind the scenes. S/he has to pick up the pieces if you’re not in school.
•          Don't share current administrative/parent/governor issues with staff (again, except the deputy) UNLESS one of them is the focus of the problem.
•          Don't have favorite kids or teachers. It shows, it causes resentment, and it can act against you in the most unpredictable ways.
•          Use assemblies to give staff time off to plan for the upcoming day, or, to just have a chat with another teacher over a cup of tea.
•          Cut down on out of school meetings. If necessary, inform your superiors in the central administration that, unless a meeting’s agenda is urgent, you’d rather have the information sent to you.
•          Respect teachers’ time and keep staff meetings on track. keep the meetings relevant.
•          Share the chair role at staff meetings – different chairperson for each meeting. This gives you better opportunity to say what’s on your mind.
•          Have a clear, agreed discipline process, share with parents.
•          Have 'hands on' participatory curriculum evenings for parents so they can help their children at home with maths,  reading and writing, science and history.
•          Share much of what’s going on in your office, with school secretary and the deputy, at least once a week - part of his/her training for when s/he runs his own school – and keeps secretary in the picture.
•          Put together a tray of tea and biscuits to teachers on parent evenings and take to the teaching areas.
•          Check on every pupil absence ASAP and keep the teachers posted on what‘s going on with their pupils.
•          Get to know those with learning and behavior issues - ensure their needs are met as best you can.
•     Develop good relations with child psychologist.
•          Be alert to gender issues, particularly with your staff.
•          Participate in sports day  ^[1] and be seen when PTA has jumble sales.
•          Ensure concerts are well rehearsed before they are presented to the public.
•          If you bring in parents to help in your classrooms, make sure you talk with them as a group, giving guidance on what is and what is not acceptable visitor behavior in the classroom.
•          Encourage the PTA to fund raise as often as possible.
•          Arrange overnight camps at the beginning of the school year – this experience is a great community builder. Get PTA to cover the cost.
•          Similarly, arrange as many full day trips as possible for the younger kids.

• Last, but not least, try, try to leave school behind each day - don't let its daily flood of issues impact your private life.

---

^[1] I made a point of challenging the fastest boy and the fastest girl to a hundred metre sprint, dressed in my Headmaster’s regalia. And, I always won!!!!

Place-Based Education.......wassat?

'Place-based is the belief that teaching happens most effectively through use of the local culture, politics, art, environment, economy, geography etc.... creating a concrete context in which students can build connections to the content being taught.'      Nature and Children.

My, sounds like a return to the best of 1960s UK practice in schools in UK. 

'Nature Study', 'Using Nature', 'Environmental Studies', 'Field Studies', 'Environmental Education', and now 'Place Based Education'...................

It's time I weighed in on this.......particularly as my whole teacher career, with children and adults, has focused on arousing curiosity.......through story-telling, collecting, displaying and sharing nature's artifacts, and taking all-ages on environmental walks and searches.

Anyone read YESTERDAY I FOUND....by John and Dorothy Paull, 1971, an account of how one teacher very effectively used the wild and man-made environment to engage and motivate her kids?

Anyone read THROUGH MY EYES...by John Paull, 2012, a memoir of teaching in the 1960s and 1970s?

Anyone who reads this blog recognize the theme running through most of the postings?    :) Hey, hey....

Funny.................the three school districts I am familiar with have and continue to do their best to discourage Place Based Education. It's left to a small number of Charter and Private Schools to make the most of the power of curiosity-driven classroom activities..........activities that encourage children to think, draw, write, read, and measure.

Litter in the wild and beautiful Colorado countryside

I've taken to picking up litter on my morning and afternoon walks. I put on my walking shoes, tuck a plastic bag in my pocket, and off I go. I look closely at the spiky yucca, the delightful grasses, the cacti, the Indian Paintbrush, the scrub oak...........and the bits of plastic and broken bottles. You would be surprised how quickly  I fill my bag with all sorts of junk. Plastic bottles, small liquor bottles, soda cans, plastic food trays, bags, broken sunglasses, the occasional article of clothing.  

I've also taken to writing articles on the litter in 

The Pinery Monthly newsletter, hoping it might just get a litterer to think twice before slinging down his empty cigarette packet or her small empty bottle of gin.

Here are the first three:

Litter and The Pinery Environment

Each day, I take a walk in the Open Space close to my home, onto N. Pinery Parkway, and back to my residence.

Each day, I’m reminded that I’m so lucky to live in such a wild and wonderful environment where I’m surrounded by magnificent views, open prairie land, trees, grasses, yucca, prickly pear, and an incredible variety of birds and animals of all shapes and sizes.

Each day on my walk I fill a large King Soopers plastic bag with all kinds of litter, trying my best to keep The Pinery at its best.

Today’s plastic bag collection was by far the biggest hoard yet.

The cache included: broken glass beer bottles, small vodka, gin and whiskey plastic bottles, three squashed coke cans, four Marlborough cigarette packets, a cardboard box, three plastic bags, several plastic wrappers, a female undergarment, and three unmentionable items.

Common sense tells me that litter is not only an eyesore. Litter also harms The Pinery environment, damaging where many live, work, and play.

Deer and birds choke and die when they swallow plastic. Small mammals starve and die when they become trapped inside glass bottles. Dogs cut their feet when they run over broken glass.

Litter, too, is a breeding ground for bacteria that impacts our health.

So, my question: Can you help keep The Pinery litter under control?

Can you take a bag with you the next time you go for a walk, and pick up the junk you see lying at your feet?

Can you help maintain The Pinery’s natural beauty?

Please?

A Pinery Litter Picker

 Litter and The Pinery Environment 2

Well, I’m still at it, picking up the empty bottles, plastic bags, and other bits of junk thrown from the car windows, still doing my bit to keep The Pinery looking good.

I’ve learned not to be too surprised at what I find.

Today, lying next to three beer bottles, was a sad and very upsetting sight: the crumpled body of a mature deer. Whoever hit it drove off and left the dying deer by the North Pinery Parkway roadside.

Once I collected myself and contacted the appropriate department in Douglas County, I felt a strong vindication of the letter I wrote yesterday to Douglas County, posing two questions:

1. Can we please have more signs that threaten litterers with a $1000 fine? And,
2. Can we please have some well-placed signs that warn drivers of deer crossing our Pinery roads?

I’ll let you know what response I get.

On a more positive note, I see the signs of spring, especially in the dry earth that surrounds my house. Green shoots have pushed their way through the soil crust, buds are appearing on my cherry tree, and the red-winged blackbirds and magpies, talking their heads off, give me a joyful, celebratory morning greeting each day as I leave my home, empty plastic bag in hand, off to pick up trash.

As I walk, my eyes are alert, open wide, and not just for soda cans. The other day I picked up a couple of dead ponderosa pine branches, peeled off the bark, and saw the winding trails of bark beetle larvae. The teacher in me takes over and I collect those twigs with the best, most intricate, patterns to take home, soak in soapy water, and sandpaper the ends when they are dry. Why? To enhance the tracks and trails made by the larvae as they eat their way through the tree inner wood. Why? To show kids, of course, in the nearby primary school, just how a tiny beetle brings about the demise of those Pinery trees stressed and suffering from the persistent drought and the poor Pinery soil.

As the daytime temperatures increase, it won’t be long now before I’ll spot spiders, beetles, and other small creatures, lurking in and around the grasses and plants that make up the wild, beautiful Pinery environment. I can’t wait for that magical feeling when I see my first large wolf spider of the year!

OK, time for my afternoon litter-picking walk. If I’m really lucky, I might come across…….well, I’ll keep you posted. Where’s my KingSoopers bag?

The Pinery Litter Picker.

Litter and The Pinery Environment 3

It seems ages since I last wrote about the litter in The Pinery……..8 weeks ago, in fact, 56 days…………during which time I have collected at least 56 big plastic bags full of crushed cigarette packets, beer and liquor bottles, and the usual variety of plastic bags and fastfood containers, all thrown without a thought from passing cars and trucks.

Every day I walk and collect and every day there is yet more litter lying in the tall grass, alongside the beautiful spring flowers - what a contradiction. Every day there’s yet another plastic sheet, flapping like a flag on top of a proud spiky yucca.

And I thought I’d seen it all. Well, no, actually I hadn’t. As I was feeling the combination of the Pinery morning breeze and the bright yellow rising sun the other day, fascinated by the sheer beauty of the vibrant grasses and delicate, colorful spring flowers, I found something that quite took my breath away.

Lying next to the decaying carcass of a long dead young deer, I spotted a big black plastic bag. My first thought was that it was sure to be filled with bottles and plastic food cartons, thrown from passing cars over the fence by those who should know and behave better.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. When I undid the knot and looked inside I saw a bundle of fur and bones. It was the remains of a young dog………

If the person responsible for dumping a dead dog off the Pinery Parkway is reading this article (although I doubt it, somehow)  just know that I took your dog home and buried it, giving it, at the very least, some dignity and the respect the unfortunate animal needed.

OK, enough of that. It's time for my litter-picking walk. I wonder what I will find today amidst The Pinery’s flowers, grasses and shrubs.…….?

Oh, I nearly forgot. Remember I had written to Douglas County, asking for road signs that would remind Pinery residents and inform visitors about the deer that occasionally cross the roads, and about the littering fine? Well, after a month of waiting for a reply, I wrote again. Still no reply. Guess they must be too busy to respond to letters from their constituents.

Where’s my Kingsoopers plastic bag?

The Pinery Litter Picker

Litter and The Pinery Environment 4

Nope, I haven’t given up trying to keep The Pinery free of plastic bags, beer cans and bottles, and the rest of the junk thrown from cars and trucks. I continue to scour the area close to my home and continue to pick up the trash.

BUT, I’ve just discovered that there’s a group of 5^th graders from North East Elementary School doing something far more exciting for The Pinery ‘wild’ environment. Members of 5^th grade teacher Jeannine West’s CITIZEN SCIENCE class, the young scientists are observing  and documenting the small creatures that live in The Pinery Nature Reserve.

What’s CITIZEN SCIENCE?

Formally, Citizen Science has been defined as "the systematic collection and analysis of data; development of technology; testing of natural phenomena; and the dissemination of these activities by researchers.”   In other words, Citizen Science is scientific research conducted by amateur scientists, including school children. The data the 5^th graders collect through their fieldwork is documented and sent to academic scientists involved in researching the habitats of small creatures.

Here’s part of what Jeannine wrote about her science project:

CITIZEN SCIENTISTS AT NORTHEAST ELEMENTARY

            Fourteen fifth graders are currently involved in a Citizen Science program at Northeast Elementary.  Citizen Science is collaborative scientific research, managed by scientists and conducted by amateur or non-professional scientists in the field.  Its goal is to further science itself---and the understanding of both science and the scientific process.  

For the last two weeks, fifth graders students have been observing pollinators in the bird sanctuary adjacent to N. Pinery Parkway and the school.  This data has been shared with a network of other citizen scientists through a project called The Great Sunflower Project, a group that is counting and identifying pollinators in yards, gardens, and schools all over the United States.  This group has constructed the largest single body of information about bee pollinators in North America.

As the weather changes, students will be turning their focus to the spiders in The Pinery Nature sanctuary and will collect data about the amazing assortment of arachnids living there before they, too, tuck away for the winter.

If you want more information about Citizen Science, visit: Citizen Science Alliance

I know, first hand, that the process of interacting with nature excites the Northeast 5^th graders, lighting and fanning their fires of curiosity – and deepens their knowledge and respect for The Pinery environment.

I bet they don’t leave any litter around The Pinery Nature Reserve!

Number 5

OK………..here I am, still at it, still picking up someone else’s beer and hard liquor bottles, soda cans, bits of plastic, yucky, indestructible polystyrene coffee cups, and, looking, of course, for the occasional wishing rock!

Here I am, still aggravated by the thoughtless, disrespectful nightly act of eating and drinking while driving and throwing what’s left over through the car/truck window.

Here I am, still doing my best to keep The Pinery wild environment looking less like a city street.

For those of you who like details, the drinks of the week were Dale Pale Ale and Jack Daniels’ whiskey.

On a lighter and more positive note, you’ll remember the Citizen Science project I wrote about last time, yes? Well, the Citizen Scientists at NorthEast Elementary School have happily submitted their pollinator and spider data to a scientist in CU Boulder. This past week, Ms. Jeannine West’s Citizen Science fifth graders emptied and cleared out this recent mating season’s nests in the Nature Park’s nesting boxes, making them ready and available for the birds to roost over the winter months.  The Citizen Scientists also helped me pick up the bits of litter that were spoiling the landscape outside their school. Thank you, NE Citizen Scientists. Thank you, Ms. West.

On Monday evening, I joined the Young Scientists for the last of three I’m a scientist classes. It was great seeing and hearing the young scientists working feverishly with senior scientists (their parents, I presume) to make flip flops, papercopters, newspaper bridges, marble runs and more. I knew right away they wouldn’t ever leave litter when they investigate and enjoy the natural delights of The Pinery. What struck me, too, was the fact that the young scientists were using empty tin cans, newspapers, used coffee cups and recycled paper for their experiments. What a great idea. Good for them. And a big pat on the back for the parents who brought their kids to the three classes.

Oh, by the way, like you, I’m sure, I was upset when I read recently about the painful death of a deer. Wounded by an arrow, the unfortunate animal must have suffered terribly until it was eventually put out of its misery.

OK, that’s it, I think. Just before it gets dark, I have to get my two Target plastic bags (they hold more than the Kings Soopers bags) and nip out to the nearby Parkway. There’s a lot of trash there that I saw on my way to town this morning.

Anyone want to come and join me? Picking up litter is not much fun, but, hey, someone has to do it, yes? If you’re interested in helping me, contact the HOA>

Wonder what I will find after Thanksgiving Day?

Mmmmmm…….I’ll let you know in the next Newsletter.

The Pinery Litter Picker.