SPEAKER_00 0:00

When there's a leadership change in the middle of the school year, it could lead to mass pandemonium. But that's not what happened at Springdale Elementary. This episode of the New Teacher Big Impact podcast, we're going to talk about what happens when there's a leadership shift mid-year and how to keep staff bought in. Impact begins now.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

New Teacher Big Impact.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Welcome back to New Teacher Big Impact the podcast. I'm two-time Teacher of the Year, Daryl Williams Jr. And today I have with me Dr. Sharp and Miss Pardue from Springdale Elementary that are going to help us understand what it takes to have our staff bought in, even when there's a shift in the middle of the year. So first of all, thank you for being here today. Thanks for inviting me into this beautiful building.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Thank you for coming, and we're happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I love it. I love it. It's interesting. So the first time we met was virtual. Yes. We had this virtual presentation for the staff. It was over the summer for the staff. And I was just interested to remind us about the attendees and the circumstances around that particular event.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Sure. Well, Tammy was the one who initially thought of the idea of having you come to do that virtual PD. So that's when we set that up. And really the topic was how to motivate the unmotivated. And we just felt that our teachers needed a little more of a toolbox to be able to pull from to keep their kids engaged and doing all the things that they're required to do all day. And so we advertised it throughout the end of the school year. We had sent out your flyer and some links to some of your um social media so that they could see who you were. And then we put it out there, and we had um about 97% of our staff here in the middle of the week on a Wednesday in June, just um that were committed and and here and active and participating in the library, and it was a wonderful morning.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

That's so cool. And it was optional, though.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

It was absolutely optional. They did not have to come, but they they all they all came. The only ones who didn't were like in Hawaii.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Which is okay, like we'll list these in for that. But that's so cool. And but I think the craziest part of all this is that this was what month six for you? Five, six?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

That's true. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Because you became so tell us a little bit about how you got into this role as principal this year.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Sure, sure. Um, I was I joined the Spring Deal staff about three years ago, actually in February, um, when the pro the previous principal moved into a district role and the current assistant principal became principal. And then it kind of happened again. The principal moved into a district role, and therefore the principal position opened, and so I was hired into the principal position in January. Um, so fortunately, because I was already here as the assistant principal, that helped with that transition, and then I was able to hire um Mrs. Peterson, who's an amazing assistant principal, and we've just gelled really well together as a team. And then we also leaned on um Miss Pardieu, who is our instructional coach, and she has been at the school since it opened, beginning. Oh, really? Spring deal opened in 2017, so we are going into our 10th year, and um she's been here all along. So I think pulling on what she knows from the school and the history of the school, what I experienced as the assistant principal, and then just I've worked at a lot of schools around the country and also in Wilson County and just being able to draw on that experience to be able to pull some of the best practices that we've seen um together to make it work for our teachers here at Springdale.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Got you. Well, I think it's it's great that you were already here in the building and kind of was able to fill that need. Like I said at the top of the episode, a lot of times when there's a mid-year shift, it's chaos, pandemonium.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Very scary.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Right? I've been a part of those as well. And it's all good things. You know, I've had principals that were, yeah, called to district office or called to go be a turnaround principal in another school. Um, but then what do we do? You know? So I'm glad that you were able to step up. And I know that there are some other people that were kind of in your shoes, and uh we're gonna talk on this episode about what are some of the big priorities and the things that you have to make sure you do when you come in in that type of position, or you know, when you're given that sort of responsibility. But uh one of the things I know is that we have to focus on teacher buy-in, which obviously influences teacher retention.

unknown 4:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

See a lot of times with a leadership shift and then teachers leave, they start going to other schools and district, or things like that. Um, that's not the case that we saw here. And I think it's because you did one of the things really, really well. You know, there are three drivers of new teacher retention. I talk about them all the time. Driver number one is how leaders see them. Driver number two is how teachers see themselves, and driver number three is how the school feels to be a part of. When those three things are addressed, then that's what for uh allows teachers to want to stay. What I felt just from our very first interaction, even from our virtual interaction, and now seeing you here in person was definitely a strong focus on driver number three, which is how the school feels to be a part of. So that's really where I want to land this episode, focusing on that driver. Uh but first, what were some of your anxieties as you were thinking about heading into this role in mid of the year and the expectations, anxieties?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Absolutely. Um, well, we're very fortunate. Spring Deal is a very high-achieving school. We've done very well, one of the top schools in the district. For example, last year in the 25-26 school year, our second graders were um over 90% proficient in reading. So when you're performing that high, the anxiety of continuing that high level of achievement and still showing growth on top of that, that adds that's high. That adds a lot of anxiety. So we were like, how are we gonna keep moving that um pendulum in that direction where we're continuing to show high achievement and growth on top of it? Um so that definitely was a major anxiety for us. Of course.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

And I think the staff too, anytime you have a change in admin, there's anxiety and there's worry about that. And Dr. Sharp did a great job of coming in and saying, you know what, we're gonna keep what we're doing because what we're doing is great. And we're obviously we're meeting the goals that we've set for ourselves, and we're gonna keep striving and working together, and kind of took some of that anxiety off because as a teacher, especially we have a lot of young teachers who've never had an admin change before, and so there were a lot of questions thrown to me, like, do you think she's gonna do this? Is she gonna move me? What are we gonna do? And I'm like, just stay calm and go through the flow, write it, like write it, and understand that she's not gonna come in and completely change everything, she's gonna keep it where we continue to grow and we continue to work to, but we also had that culture of support within our teachers that to be honest, take out admin and our teachers can still thrive. Really? Because they've built that culture with each other, too, and they know that they can trust our admin and they support our admin, but they also know that they have the confidence to keep doing what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

So, how how did that come about? I'm sure it's not something that just started and they say, you know what, we're gonna be bought in. It's just great culture. Like, what what how did they get there?

SPEAKER_02 6:49

From the day we opened the door, that has been the priority here. First is everything we do, is we put the kids first. That's absolutely. But second is building that culture and having teachers trust each other as a team and also build across the grade levels to each other. So we're not just focused on your first grade team, you only work with first grade team, you only talk to first grade team. We do a lot of cross-grade level things, we do a lot of um you are a fifth grade teacher, and they would say, Well, I have no idea what was going on in first grade. So we have something called Panther Pear Shares, like once in nine weeks, they take a planning time and they get to go sit in the first grade class. They can go anywhere they want to, look at any teacher they want to, and it inspires them to try new things. We had fifth grade teachers that were trying strategies that the first grade teachers were doing that maybe they would have never thought of that it would work with both ways. But so from the very beginning, we've had that culture of open doors, supporting each other. All of our teachers know they can go to anybody else in the building and ask questions or get help or support. So that that strong foundation, no matter who the admin is, right, is there, and I think that helps her job as well. But it also gives the teachers the support of each other, knowing that whatever happens and whatever changes we have, we're still gonna have that same family and foundation.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, I want to know more about the the Panther Parish here. That's that sounds really great. Like logistically, I want to see like what that looks like if you describe a little more.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

It's been so valuable. You know, we give so much professional development to our teachers, they have professional development all the time, and we the past three years have really focused on powerful core instruction and strategies that work in the classroom. And we taught them about those strategies, but if you just teach them and then say go do that, sometimes it can fall short. So what the Panther pair shares when the teachers are going to different classes and they're seeing that those cognitive interest cues, they're seeing that cognitive writing, they're seeing the um the peer consolidated learning happening in small groups, and they're like, Oh, that professional development I heard about, I can see how other teachers are implementing it and I can see it work. Got it. And then the next step is not only they get to go see that happening in other classrooms and um witness those strategies in action, we come back as a staff and we talk about it to each other. So we've used some of those really good practices of like whole class instruction to group up and we've done all kinds of things. We've done fishbowls and jigsaw, all the different things to um at one of our faculty meetings where they share what they saw. So now if I went to go visit Miss Pardue's class and saw some great teaching here, I'm gonna turn around, I'm gonna brag on Miss Pardue to you. So now you're gonna hear about something amazing that's happening in another class, and they might prompt you to want to go visit and see it for yourself the next time you have that opportunity. And we just what we do is we've professional learning communities, we have those scheduled once a week. And so once in nine weeks, instead of having the teacher meet teachers meet as a grade level team, that's when they take that planning time and it is required, and they go out and we give them a form where they actually have notes that they can take, some things they notice, some things they're wondering about, um, and how they could potentially apply whatever they see. And they're only required to be in the room for about 10 to 15 minutes. So it's not a huge time you know, constraint on them during that planning time. They like it because usually a PLC is the whole planning. So these are just a portion of the planning. And then knowing that they're gonna share about it um adds a little bit of the accountability. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

And I think that's a great time frame as well. Learning that and myself as an administrator, that um, you know, 10 10 minutes is plenty, you know, when you get in there to see the classroom. A lot of times you can see some really great things, um, and a lot of times when it's not so great, you can tell kind of right away that yeah, we close some of these gaps. So that that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

So a lot of times they'll come to me as the instructional coach and they'll say, I want to see somebody that does XYZ. And I'll say, Okay, I'm gonna suggest that you go down to this room and see that person. Or sometimes it's just random of, hey, I heard the STEM teacher's doing a really great job down there, and I've never seen her teach, so I'm gonna go down there and watch her and see what she's doing. Yeah. So it can be a formal thing of I can um take a new teacher and say, I think you need to go see this person, and maybe you'll get some ideas from that, to somebody who's a veteran teacher that just says, I want to see something new. I want to see something different.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

See, two things jumped out at me just now uh when you were mentioning that. One, teachers are burning out faster than ever. Confidence is dropping, imposter syndrome is rising, and too many classrooms feel like survival instead of transformation. But what if it doesn't have to be this way? Great teaching isn't magic, it's a method. And inside the Impact Playbook, you'll discover the six principles that thousands of teachers are already using to reignite their passion, engage their students, and build classrooms that thrive. This isn't just another book that collects dust on the shelf. It's a complete system that helps teachers step into their strength, prevent burnout, and create learning that sticks. If you're looking to see a drop in teacher turnover and a boost in student engagement, the principles are right here inside the book. So if you're a teacher ready to reclaim your confidence or a district leader ready to transform entire schools, click the link to get the Impact Playbook today. Because when teachers win, students win, and entire communities win, and the world is changed forever. You, as the leadership team and admin team, obviously have to know enough about the educators in the building to know who to pair with, oh, if you want to see, you know, this, you should go there. You have to be able to know that, right? So that shows that, you know, you're paying attention, you're in classrooms, you're seeing what people are excelling in, which is actually driver number one, right? How leaders see me. Do you see my potential? Do you see my growth? Do you see my effort and that I'm trying? Do you see the great things inside of me, which is awesome? And then the fact that there is this open door policy, I can pop into other classrooms, we can communicate with each other, that just shows that we're in this together. And that is really what culture is all about. One of the quotes I always uh like to use, and one of the analogies, uh, demonstrations, descriptions of whatever you want to use. I don't know if it's a quote, but it's a because it's pretty long. But uh when I was a DEIB director um at a private school, and we always said that diversity is inviting everybody to the dance. All right? DEIB is diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. So diversity is inviting everybody to the dance. Equity is making sure that everybody has access to get into the dance so you can afford the tickets and things like that. Inclusion is that everybody has a song on the playlist that is being played at the dance. And the B belonging is everybody feeling alive enough to dance however they want and not being judged. Right?

unknown 13:19

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

And I think that when you look at the culture, that piece of belonging, can people can teachers in the building be okay making mistakes and lean on another teacher and say, hey, I tried this and it didn't work? Is it okay for me to say, you know, I I'm I'm struggling with this? Can you support me? And in places where teachers don't feel like they belong, or they don't feel comfortable doing that, I'm walking on eggshells, I can't dance however I want to dance, those are environments where teachers say, I don't know if I can stay here anymore. And that's when we see attrition issues.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Right. Who wants to stay in an environment like that? Who wants to be where you can't teach like your heart tells you to teach? People come to teach because they're driven by that wanting to help our students and help them grow. And if you hush that down and say, No, you can't do what your heart tells you, you gotta do what the book says, A B C, then you're not gonna be a good teacher. You're not gonna enjoy it, you're not gonna stay.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

So, how do you know here at Springdale that it's working? What is the proof that that the efforts and that the culture and the focus on culture is is impactful?

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Um, I think that our 92% um retention from last school year to this school year, I have very few teachers that I hire, and the ones that left uh I think a few of them moved out of state because of you know family and jobs and for their spouses and things like that. So I think that speaks very highly. And when um those teachers come to say that they do need to make a move, they're usually very, very sad about that move. Like they they're they're saying that they have to move, but they really don't want to, and they're scared because they're nervous that they won't find another school like Springfield. So I think that speaks very highly. Um, I think the fact that we have um right now we have so many teachers who want to step up and um we do a survey at the end of the year and we ask, you know, what committees what do you want to be in? What do you want to be a part of? And we had so many teachers want to be part of our our what we call our Panther Council or leadership committee. Um, to me that shows that we have teachers who want to be a part of continuing to make Springdale a great school. They want to help, they they feel that what they do, they know it's valued, and it gives them the confidence to want to be a leader in our school to the point where we have so many leaders that I you know I think that growing leadership is one of the goals that you know I have as an administrator because that's what other people did for me when I was a teacher, and I want to do that for our teachers as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

I love it. I love it. That's powerful. All right. So, with that being said, what do you think is one thing that leaders could do this week that would help and move the needle with the culture in their building?

SPEAKER_02 16:08

For me as an instructional coach, it's the little things. It's not the big things that everybody shines about and talks about, it's the little things that you do. This week at um they were having PD classes. I checked in on them. I went in and said, Hi. She came. She didn't have to come. She came to our PD sessions and was checking in and just saying, have a good day today. The ones that were presenting at our our PDs, she encouraged them and she said, You know, I'm behind you, you're gonna do this, it's gonna be great. And so just that the little things that you do, knowing what's going on in their life, maybe they've got something on going on and they need some extra support that week in their classroom. It's not the big things, and also that they all know that our admin gives them grace. We have high expectations, we expect a lot out of our teachers, and we want to motivate them and keep them going, but they also know when they fail, and we all fail because we're humans, and when we goof up, she's gonna give them grace. She's gonna say, Okay, this happened, let's move from it, let's grow from it, and let's keep going. It's not a you terrible and you have this is awful and it's not gonna work, and everybody's gonna be mad at you. No, it's a okay, let's look at the situation. It did happen. How can we make it better and move on? And so they know that door's open, they can come in here anytime and talk to our admin, absolutely, and they know that she's gonna have grace with it. She's gonna tell them what they did wrong, because we all need that, we all need to know, we all need that criticism and our to get better, but she's also gonna have grace falling it, saying, Wow, this happened, but we're gonna move forward.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

And I love that you mentioned that because that's not the first thing that came to my mind with a high-performing school, you know. Like they can't give grace. A lot of times I'm thinking militant, I'm thinking these are expectations, we've got to hit it, you know, we can't dip, especially again, that anxiety coming into at mid-year, we've got to keep it excelling, but it's just the opposite. It's giving that grace is what allows you to continue to grow.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Absolutely. We do. We really stress um for teachers to take care of themselves, that self-care. We always say family first. You know, if a teacher has something going on with a child or a parent or something going on, it's okay. Like we will get coverage for your class because we know that you need to take care of that so that you can then be at your best for when you are in the classroom in front of your students. Um, so we definitely prioritize that. And then we also just in the general functioning of our school, we try to reduce some of the extra noise. Like we try to be very streamlined in our communication, we try to be very organized in the way that um teachers can find information and resources so they're not wasting their time or digging around or getting frustrated because they're not sure what they're supposed to be doing or what the expectation is. So I think that clear and concise communication without overloading helps to um provide our teachers a sense of confidence because they know what's expected and they feel more comfortable, and then also just making sure that they know that you know we're people and we know that they're people and they have lives outside of school and that we we prioritize that as well.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

That's amazing. Yeah, it's people before problems, like right. These are these are actually.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

That's excellent. Yeah, progress over perfection, too.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

That too. That too. Of course, of course. So then the last question I always like to ask is what is a mistake that a lot of leaders make when it comes to culture or you know, trying to build culture. And we were actually talking about it just before we started recording, which I think, you know, uh a lot of times it's doing so many things. There's there's so much access, so much access to a resource, just strategies to try this and implement this and do that. And I think, and I'm gonna get what your opinion and what you think, it can be completely different. But I think one of the biggest mistakes is just uh focusing on this strategies and just trying a whole bunch of different things or just just giving them full giving people full access to everything and saying figure it out. All right, that's why in the book, Tammy, we were speaking about that earlier. That's why in the book, I start focusing on burnout from the inside out. Alright? How do we work on that system first? The system of your grit, your resilience, and like your wellness before we just start trying to pile strategies on top. Alright. So, what do you think? What are some mistakes that people are making? If you would like for your school district to be empowered as well, you can click the link down below and our team will reach out to you.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

I think in today's teaching society, there's a lot of imp people want to have the perfect room that looks the great best, you know, has all the good things in it, has everything they want it, but they need to focus on just the simple things that keeps their classroom management together. It's not a it doesn't have to be a huge big deal, it's just simple, small things to keep your classroom together so you can do your instructional time and focus on that instructional time. And if you try a static strategy, give it time to fail. Don't fail a week into it. A lot of people will say, Oh, well, I tried that, I did it for two days, but it didn't work. It takes more than just a week to get into a new strategy, but also know you're gonna try a lot of things and it's gonna fail. Like as a teacher, when I started, oh goodness, I tried everything that came down the road. But what stuck is what I kept, and the things that failed, I said, Okay, I failed at that, it didn't work, that strategy didn't work. It might work this year, didn't work next year because I had a different group of kids. But focusing on maybe one or two things instead of trying to do 50 new things every year is a big or two.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Of course, of course.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

And I think as as an administrator, um, allowing our teachers to teach the way that they're most comfortable. Our district does a great job of providing instructional guides as far as what our high-quality instructional materials are and what um the content of that instruction. It is all standards-based, and we do require our teachers to stick to our district-led um instructional guides. However, the way that they are presenting it to their students, they don't have to all be cookie-cutters of one of another. And we try to share, you know, share the love. I think sometimes we we get hung up where we are like we see a teacher who does a great job and we pay so much attention to that teacher, and we send everybody to go see that teacher and that teacher, but then that makes the other teachers in the building feel like what they're doing isn't as worthy, or they're not um we're not recognizing the effort and the time and the growth that they're putting in. So I think trying to look at all teachers and find what they're really good at, what their strengths are, and then kind of share that love and And we do that through our Panther Pair shares and um our our conversations during um observation cycles and things like that and um just remembering that everyone, you know, we want to con just like we tell our kids to have a growth mindset, we want to have a growth mindset as teachers and then make sure that we are um not just shining the light on a few people here and there that all of our teachers are valued and we appreciate every single one of them.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

I love popping into the same grade level and they'll all be on the same standard and you'll see five totally different lessons.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Absolutely one may be really technology heavy, one may be more hands-on heavy, one may be just quiet and they're all sitting and just look learning together. So I love that. That's I think that's that's a big thing because our teachers are teaching how they love to teach.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Yes, and I and that is so powerful. It it actually frustrates me when the expectation is we're cookie cutter, we're all on the same page, same word, here's the script, you know, at the same time. Because you need that individuality, you need your your unique gifts, skills, talents, and abilities to shine through, you know, in the classroom. Nobody else is gonna be able to do it like you. So why hide yourself, you know, but highlight the things that separate you and make you different. Absolutely. I love it. Earlier, you were speaking about that when you were talking about the growth mindset and the teachers and um inside the book. You said it a lot better than than I would, but I don't know about that. Well, you you said when you were going through the book, it was um uh the the approach was different than you've seen in some other books in the past. And you there were you saying that it was you were appreciating it and why.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

I appreciate that it's for this time of in our teaching careers, right? Like other resources that we've had before in the past were like do A, B, C, here's the strategies, every year you need to do these things. Your book is helping teachers who need it right now on how to do the growth mindset and how to think about them personally and what they need to do in their mind and in their heart to be the teacher that they started and wanted to be. Everybody that comes to teaching wants to be here. They love kids, they want to be here, but sometimes we get caught up in all the noise, like she was saying, and they just have to focus on themselves, and your book helps them do that. I think it's gonna be very impactful for a lot of teachers, whether they're new or whether they've been in this 10 years, to think about how do they, as this person, handle the things that come to us in education. Things are coming, there's a lot of things coming. Parents are coming, new innovations are coming. All of these things that are just hitting us and hitting us, but your mindset on how you accept that and take that is whether or not you're gonna fail or succeed. And I think your book does a great job in promoting that with our teachers.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Oh well, well, that was the goal. So I'm glad I'm glad it's working. That's awesome. So what I'm hearing is even if there's a wonky kind of weird start disruption, which we know happens in every school year, all right, you can still push through, and one of the things that really keeps it glued together is when there's a strong enough culture. And that's not something that happens overnight, something we've been forming since 2017. Um, but it's the little things, not always the big, drastic changes, but the little things and the intentionality and force and uh allowing the conversations and the culture to be built between teachers as well. I always like to say, not um, it's not pickle, pickleball, not pickleball or table tennis, where it's just administrator, teacher, administrator, teacher, administrator, teacher, but it's more like volleyball, where it's like we're all on the same team over here, we'll kick it to you guys over there, you guys volley back and forth, kick it over here. Like we're all involved, and and I think that that is super powerful, and that's what I see here. So to land the plane, I'll just say that you are doing an incredible job. If nobody has said that to you, I want to make sure that you realize that, that you know that. Go to a lot of schools, interact with a lot of people, and not everything feels like this. So you're doing an awesome job. Appreciate you for being an impactful educator. And the very last question we have, which you're not gonna answer right here on the call, is which shirt design you would like because you are getting an impactful educator shirt for being a guest on the podcast, and because you are an impactful educator.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Thank you. Got it. So appreciate you being here. Thanks for inviting me into your building, and uh, we will continue to have this conversation. Hopefully, we have this book study, like you mentioned, over these new teachers.

SPEAKER_03 26:36

I'm excited about doing that. Very excited about doing that.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Make it happen. All right, I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_03 26:40

Good, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

All right, that's it. I help new teachers become the teachers they've always wanted to be and make the impact our students deserve. Because I've been there. I know what it's like to struggle, to feel like I'm not enough, but I also know what's on the other side: excitement, fulfillment, and the ability to change lives. Every great teacher was once a new teacher, and new teachers are often excited and eager and anxious, but a lot of times, new teachers lack the foundational skills of effective instruction. Every teacher that I work with, I carry them through this journey, helping them master the principles of effective instruction so that they know how capable they are. I can't wait to see these teachers enact. They're 1% amazing and make the difference that only they can. If you would like for your school district to be empowered as well, you can click the link down below and our team will reach out to you.