Great leaders
inspire greatness
in others —Yohda

Winter Blog:

Life in a Catholic elementary school shifts gears in November as the season of Advent, along with its preparations, liturgies and wakeful anticipation are felt throughout the parish school. December is a quick month and the joy of Christmas carries us to Christmas Vacation.  We return in January to preparations for Catholic Schools Week and Open Houses.  It isn’t surprising then that February and March are often a time of low morale with faculty, staff and parents and students.  Everyone is a little tired.  Lead Learners at Catholic schools would be wise to listen to the soothsayer in Julius Caesar. “Beware the Ides of March” or may find themselves shocked by small eruptions of emotion, grievances and rumblings that were lost in the cacophony of activity in November, December and January.    If a leader can view these months as part of the natural rhythms of a school year, they can anticipate this lull and take extra care to be present for the community.  This is not a time to disappear into your office or extend your wait time for responding to concerns, but to act promptly, practice patience and active listening.  Simple, this is not, as our very own energy levels may be depleted and we may find ourselves discouraged and questioning our own abilities.   Our faith can give us great comfort during these often dark days of the year.  Daily prayer, a conversation with a trusted colleague and treating everyone with an intentional kindness (that may feel insincere- do it anyway), will often be the soothing balm necessary to help your community navigate their way to the joy of Easter.

The Onward Leaders have developed their roles as Faith Leader during these months and the insights from their reflections show a deep understanding of that role.

Blessings,

Meg Samaniego, Director

The development of new religion standards has been a lengthy, but meaningful process to have been a part of. This development has involved creating religion standards that will be rolled out to all schools within the next few months. This development is directly linked to faith and excellence within the entire Diocese of Los Angeles.  Each time I am able to work with the wonderful team we have, I feel honored and blessed to be there. I have learned so much about this process and my own faith. I have appreciated each moment and am eager to see the final product.

Exposing students to joyful and happily engaged Catholics is a wonderful thing – regardless of vocation.

Communication between school community members and parents is key. Fostering a positive relationship ensures that parents know we value their partnership and support the well-being/success of their child.

Behavioral supports are key part of ensuring excellence and expressing our Catholic faith.

We must interact with each individual with compassion, understanding, and love. Getting to know each child beyond their academic needs is part of our role as Catholic educators to support their well-being and growth regardless of outside factors.

As a principal, you are the leader of all students at the school. With disciplinary matters it’s important to listen, ask questions, and know the students. This would include putting on the hats of being pastoral as well as making the appropriate choices in the best interest of the child and their education.

The effective use of faculty meeting time should always keep student learning at the forefront. What we do as educators is for our students and therefore making that connection and bringing meaning to our work is key.

Building capacity through professional development and faculty discussion is directly linked to growing as a staff and school community. Especially when that discussion involves how that can reflect the Catholic nature of the school.

Leading an opening prayer with parents was a good opportunity for me to participate in inviting them to pray as a school community.  It also challenged me to elaborate on speaking about those topics on Spanish.

It’s important for principals to be involved in the classrooms “situational awareness” and understand how classes function (class culture).

Family Advent Night: The children and families were able to participate in the activities in collaboration with one another to learn and review their knowledge of the Christmas story and the Advent season. In the feedback collected from the survey, the families replied that they all learned something new and very much enjoyed the evening!

Leading a Communion Service: The community celebration (especially during Advent) is a wonderful way to live and teach our faith.

I created an outline and facilitated the first ever, grade level retreat for the 5th grade class. We intend to do this for all classes, but started with 5th grade because they have been having bullying issues. Retreats allow students to spend some time away from the normal day and focus on faith, fellowship and fun.

The Principal is the leader of the school and helps build community in a way to facilitate student growth, both personal and academic. These facilitating these parent, student, teacher and administrator conferences were an opportunity for the teacher and parent(s) (and student) to come together to grow.

Onward Leaders Blog: July 2017

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.”  

Henri Nouwen

Vulnerability is an undervalued trait of leaders.  To be vulnerable takes amazing courage, but is rarely acknowledged in a profound manner.  Superficially, it is lauded on TED talks and other social media.  Real vulnerability is not contrived or packaged. Seeing it, hearing it, feeling it and being transformed by it; it is grace.  I had the great opportunity to hear a leader talk about doubts and insecurities this past week.  I had not seen this before, though I had admired this leader who has inspired me for the last several years.  This leader spoke of driving to work and looking at other people’s jobs and dreaming how that life might be.  Or wishing to be back at another job-comfortable and safe.

Twenty years ago one of my siblings phoned me distraught late in the evening. As an aside- I have nine siblings-so you cannot pin this on anyone of them, and we are Irish through and through and have been known to bring wrath upon those who have offended us- think Beowulf.  This sibling described a great desire to have another life and even articulated how great it would be to have work where one was able to be outside walking daily.  Twenty years ago, the mail was delivered by people who got to wear shorts to work and drive these nifty small cars and we saw these parked on every street while the driver walked up and down delivering hand written cards and letters and bills with penmanship a nun would have admired.  This sibling shared with me the uncertainty of choices made.  I thought of this sibling while this leader spoke last week of uncertainties and again I knew the grace that comes from sharing our doubts- not concealing them.

I will backtrack a bit- I am one of ten.  Number seven- which is an insignificant number in a family of ten.  Seven means zilch in that crowd.  You have absolutely no leverage- no power. But we were Irish and we give names and meanings to things that have no meanings, and so I was the oldest of the four little ones (the Whammy Girls- to be exact) which afforded me some gravitas. When this older fragile sibling called me and expressed doubts; it was oddly comforting.  Grace again.  Like Christ with Thomas we say to one another: “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side,” as if to say-see, I am vulnerable, too. We are all, indeed.

I have never referred to this phone call since with my sibling.  It has, however, been a comfort to me when uncertainties and memories of missed opportunities lead me into a dark night of the soul. Paralyzing fear grips me as I conjure up wrong moves of years ago and new ones to come. There is comfort in knowing our heroes are daily anguished and uncertain just the same. Sharing our uncertainties is grace.  God’s grace.  As leaders, it might be a good idea to share these more liberally.  

Cohort 2 finished up week one of our learning together, and Cohort 1 moved officially into the lead learners at their schools.  We are committed to learning together this year which means we are willing to share our doubts, as we try on new ways of doing and thinking.  

God Bless,

Meg Samaniego, Director

August/September Blog

Onward Leaders Cohort 2 is firmly ensconced in the schools that they serve while Cohort 1 has taken on the role of Lead Leaner at their sites.   August and September for the Onward Leaders Resident Principal contains 10 days of training in the Vision for Faith, Excellence and Stewardship for schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. And then into the reality of principaldom, they all went.  August and September bring a sense of insecurity, of uncertainty, and thus hesitancy for the Onward Leaders Resident, as it would for all new leaders.  Do I say anything if I see inefficiency?  Do I question practices in place?  Probably no, maybe, or yes?  But reflecting about the thinking behind practices and policies is the work of any lead learner.  It is very complicated, and requires looking at the assumptions that drive current practices and systems at a school.  It is exhausting and exhilarating.

One can read and train and practice for this work of leadership- but once confronted with its challenges, we often react rather than respond intentionally to the most benign triggers (I cringe as I use the word- but it is real for most people if one is honest.).   As I began on my journey of lead learner, I like so many of us, brought to the role my own experiences, my own “baggage”.  Having parented a child that didn’t quite fit both academically or socially contributed to my view of school systems. I had to separate my emotional response to teachers who appeared to cast judgement about children who didn’t do their homework.  My gut reaction was to defend the parent, for I was that parent.  What that teacher didn’t appreciate was the lengths we had gone to navigate the nightly drama of homework in our often limited family time, and make sure that all assignments were completed.  We heard the teacher’s recriminations about our parenting in every “Work Habits– Needs Improvement” progress report that was sent home.  One year my husband and I played paper, rock, scissors to see who had to pick up the weekly call from one teacher who felt the only solution was a military experience.  This child was 9. Knowing this about myself, allowed me to float around in that space between emotional reaction and well-reasoned action.   And that’s why the lead learner takes the time to surround themselves with a team that challenges the leader’s assumptions without judgment and asks questions that identify what is driving our action and sometimes, non-action.

The job of lead learner is not a job fit for the singular hero. One needs a team that recognizes the humanity in the work and makes allowances for us mortals to actually be human. This job requires great humility, reminding ourselves that we will never be enough for some people; there will be those who will be looking for something bigger than we are.  If you can navigate towards the goal of “what would Jesus do?” and steer clear of making it about yourself, you might have a chance at making this leadership thing work and establish authentic partnerships with faculty, staff, students and parents that allow for all members of the school community to be human, to be less than perfect, but to strive for that unreachable goal nonetheless.

August Learning from Onward Leaders Cohort 2

In reading about PLCs I have been making a lot of connections between what good teaching looks like, and how that can be paralleled in leadership. Just as a classroom teacher- the culture of my classroom and the routines and systems were important -they will also be important in leadership.

 Academic excellence is a pillar of Catholic schools. It means that not only do all students achieve, but teachers are given the tools to ensure the success of all students. Also, teachers need to grow professionally and in their own education, so that classroom instruction is effective and appropriate instructional strategies are used.  The PLC is a process in which teachers learn about their practice and improve upon it. It ensures that teachers and staff are collaborating and sharing best practices to improve student achievement. It also ensures a systemic focus on academic excellence.

A lead learner not only understands the importance of PLCs, but also understands the need for a culture that helps sustain PLCs. It is important to understand the challenges, as well as the strategies that are crucial for coherence. In addition, a lead learner finds the balance between the too tight and too loose problem. In order to sustain the process, the lead learner must establish both long term goals and short term goals. One can never forget to stop and celebrate both!

As I reflect on my learning for the week, I can see that it is important to collaborate. The position does not allow for you to sit and isolate yourself. I can see that my Mentor Principal collaborates with her staff and teachers quite a bit; keeping the students as her main focus. I learned that networking with people you might meet at a training session can also be valuable to one’s professional growth.

 I observed my Mentor Principal negotiating tuition with an incoming family. It was a great experience to watch the conversation that she had with this family that was new to Catholic education. She outlined beautifully the value of the education their child would be receiving.

 Differentiation is not solely about methodology. It entails fostering a classroom community, collecting data that is relevant in order to determine differences, and using that data to plan and adjust instruction.

God Bless,

Meg Samaniego, Onward Leaders Director

Leaders don’t create followers,
they create more leaders. —Tom Peters

God calls, and that’s what we see in the vocation of the great leaders. In our tradition, a mission always starts with a calling… —Frederick Buechner