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Many people fear change. For teachers, some embrace change while others ask why change is needed. This article provides insight into how to get reluctant teachers to take steps forward. Instead of administrators negotiating or trying to be overly kind, the article provides practical examples and strategies to use to help even the most reluctant teachers see the need to make small adaptations to the way things have always been done.

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Principals who are considered servant leaders recognize the personal needs of those within their school (Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005). This article identifies three levels of teachers and provides practical suggestions for how to work with individuals within each level. In order to accomplish meeting teachers where they are, principals must build authentic relationships.

Resources
Marzano, R. J., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. A. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL).

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Beginning Teachers

Beginning teachers have three or less years of classroom experience. They want mentoring and guidance. Many have stated that they require support around lesson planning, resources, classroom management, and pacing classroom time. Beginning teachers are also brave and want to dive in, so knowing that their colleagues trust them in and out of the classroom carries a lot of importance. Additionally, they need to feel included and supported by their colleagues, which means that congeniality and collaboration among coworkers, along with having a go-to person for questions, ranks high with this group. I recommend these steps to meet beginning teacher needs:

1. Create a formal onboarding process at your school.

Put logistical information in an easily accessible place. This could be as simple as a binder or digital folder with how-to information for various procedures, templates of needed forms, maps, schedules, etc. Allow beginning teachers to enter the classrooms of their more seasoned colleagues. Making time for practices like instructional rounds help beginning teachers get ideas for their practice, as well as allowing for reflection on where they are and where they hope to go. If you have an instructional coach on staff, require him or her to work closely with that individual. Actively creating opportunities for beginning teachers to continue learning, reflect on their practice, and contemplate their growth increases job satisfaction and teacher retention (Scherer, 2012).

2. Choose and pair mentors and mentees wisely.

Know your veteran teachers' personalities, strengths, and challenges. Would it be wise to pair like-content areas, or does it matter? How much time should mentors and mentees spend together? Are those able to mentor also able to commit as fully as you'd like? Know your resources and plan wisely for the outcomes that you'd like to see. In addition, set aside time for mentoring. Educators often become so entrenched in their daily responsibilities that it can be difficult to mentor effectively, so designate time in the schedule for mentoring, collaboration, and relationship building.

3. Continue mentoring past the first year.

One challenge for beginning teachers is a drastic shift in mentoring after their first year in the classroom. Many reported receiving less mentoring when they still felt it necessary. One teacher admitted, "Just because I have been teaching for two years doesn't mean I still don't need the same level of support I received my first year. I still struggle in many areas and need the guidance of a mentor."

Middle-of-the-Road Teachers

These are teachers who have spent 4-10 years in the classroom. They desire support and collaboration, but in a different capacity than a beginning teacher: Middle-of-the-road teachers are comfortable enough in their careers that they want to branch out, explore new ideas, and take risks, but they also want feedback from their colleagues as they do so. Relationship building, while still important, takes on a different aspect. Not only do these teachers want a continued relationship with their peers, but they also feel it necessary to know their administrators on a personal level. This is how to meet their needs:

1. Use protocols in PLCs.

Protocols help shape focused and productive conversations. A lesson-tuning protocol (PDF) not only lends itself to shared learning and practices, but also allows the presenter to walk away with effective, timely feedback on both new and older lessons and assignments. Other protocols lend themselves to guiding PLCs through looking at student work (PDF) and data (PDF), keeping educators on track throughout the process.

2. Get to know faculty members personally.

One administrator that I knew invited three or four faculty members to meet with her once a month for 45 minutes. This was her opportunity for getting to know her staff as people. They would talk about their personal lives, families, and hobbies -- basically, anything but work. This sent her staff the message that knowing them as individuals was a priority to her. If there isn't time for meeting with everyone personally, make space for the faculty to come together once a month to socialize and relax while enjoying snacks and drinks.

Veteran Teachers

Veteran teachers have spent ten or more years in the classroom. They want autonomy to shape their students' learning, while feeling that administrators trust them to continue bringing powerful teaching into their classroom even as they juggle outside responsibilities. In addition, many veteran teachers also desire leadership opportunities that aren't necessarily administrative but still allow them to step up and contribute. They also want more personalization, from how they are treated by administrators to professional learning opportunities. Lastly, veteran teachers need support and understanding around all the things that they have to juggle, both in and out of the classroom. This is how to meet their needs:

1. Ask veterans what they want.

It seems simple, but just asking veterans what opportunities they wish they had can go a long way. Follow up by exploring together how these opportunities could be fulfilled. Also, keep in mind that veterans can help in a variety of leadership capacities, from sitting on interview committees to leading school improvement teams.

2. Support veterans in personalized learning.

Support teachers as they explore different avenues of learning, and discuss how their journey could be used to support others. For example, teachers could lead a professional learning session around what they learned at a workshop or class, thus sharing their knowledge, skill, and practice with others.

Learning and meeting the personalized needs of teachers can be time consuming, but well worth the time. When teachers feel valued and heard, they are more effective and likely to stay in education.

How do you connect with teachers? I invite you to continue the conversation in the comments section.

Notes

Scherer, M. (2012, May). "The challenges of supporting new teachers." Educational Leadership, 69(8), pp.18-23.

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Personalizing for Teacher Needs | Edutopia

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Beginning teachers have three or less years of classroom experience. They want mentoring and guidance. Many have stated that they require support around lesson planning, resources, classroom management, and pacing classroom time. Beginning teachers are also brave and want to dive in, so knowing that their colleagues trust them in and out of the classroom carries a lot of importance.

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For me, sometimes I find it challenging to say no. I appreciate this article because it gives insight into why it is okay to say no. For example, the principal of the school has three guiding principles, and if the initiative does not fall within one of those categories, he says no. I once told a new principal, "As your staff, we want to follow you, but you are moving too fast for us to keep up." Too many initiatives leave staff members exhausted, so I encourage you to read this article for practical solutions to move at a pace in which your teachers can keep up.

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Sometimes the best way to innovate is to say no.

This may seem counterintuitive, but not if you talk to teachers or administrators who are dealing with initiative fatigue. Ask those educators to list the number of programs that are promoted in August and then completely forgotten by October-year after year after year.

We abandon initiatives for one of two reasons:

Overwhelmed abandonment: We lack the resources, primarily emotional energy, to persist.

Impatient abandonment: We are not patient enough to wait for results.

Abandoning initiatives for these reasons leads to frustration, disillusionment, and eventually, cynicism. Most importantly, these types of abandonment do not lead to productive innovations that benefit students.

We need what management expert Peter Drucker calls organized abandonment. Simply put, we cannot do everything well. If we attempt to be all things to all people, we will fail to do anything well. Therefore, school leaders should thoughtfully abandon those things that fail to serve students well, and even some things that would serve them well.

Using the Three Buckets Method

Bill Coon, award-winning principal of Meadow Glen Middle School in Lexington, South Carolina, is a strong believer in innovation. Coon brought EL Education to Meadow Glen-the first school in the state to use this model. The school's mission statement is: "Learn by doing. Leading by example."

At a recent convening of education leaders, someone asked Coon, "How do you and your teachers know which initiatives to pursue?"

Without hesitation, he responded, "If it is not in one of the three buckets that are part of our core mission [mastery of knowledge and skills, character, and high-quality work], then we don't do it."

With the three "buckets" or dimensions of achievement as a filter, Coon and his team determine how they will innovate based on what they will do and, maybe more importantly, what they will not do. These buckets encompass a great deal, but they also provide direction for when to say no.

Setting Up Rules to Help Say No

I recently conducted research in three high schools-one urban, one suburban, and one rural-to determine how they developed collective leadership, with teachers and administrators leading together.

Each school's innovations employed " equifinality "-many ways of achieving a desired state. Because each context was different, they had to say no to different initiatives. For example:

No to PLCs: One school did not set aside time for formal professional learning communities because, with only 26 full-time teachers, there were too many "singletons"-teachers of subjects without any counterparts.

No to anything not in the SIP: Employing a method similar to the three buckets idea, one school's leadership team used their school improvement plan (SIP) as their filter. Each spring, administrators, teachers, and students would participate in a two-day retreat to write the SIP. All initiatives were supported or rejected through this process.

No to traditional staff meetings: Another school had ended traditional staff meetings. Previously, 150 teachers would listen to a principal sharing what could have been communicated through an email. Staff meetings were now 30 minutes long, were led by teachers, and celebrated innovations occurring in classrooms and across the school.

Of course, innovation is about more than just saying no. These schools are saying yes to many grassroots ideas that are effervescing from the classrooms. Teacher leaders are making it easy for others to say yes because their ideas fit their school's buckets of work-buckets they helped design.

Saying No to Good Things

What happens when a school is doing things really well, but there isn't capacity-human or financial-to continue to do all of those things well? This is when innovation is really hard-and really important.

Innovation cannot be an add-on. Most administrators and teachers I know are working at or beyond their capacities. Innovation at many schools probably means streamlining good work that's already happening.

One of the high schools I've studied prides itself on starting any club a student suggests. The goal is to create a safe space and sense of belonging for every student. This is a noble goal. However, over 40 clubs are sponsored by volunteer teachers, who do that work without any compensation. If the volunteer sponsorship is energizing for the faculty sponsors, this is great. If, however, faculty sponsors are being spread thin and losing energy for work that is closer to their own core missions or the school's core mission, maybe some of these clubs should not exist. While there's no compensation for the faculty sponsors, there is certainly a potential cost for individuals and the school.

Turning back to the example of Meadow Glen, many great initiatives there over the years did not fit into the three buckets. A cohesive and thoughtful leadership team had to determine those three buckets. Most initiative fatigue results from saying yes to too many good things too quickly. Maintaining focus requires discipline to determine how to use financial and human capital-especially when good initiatives might consume scarce resources. Sometimes we need to say no to good things in the interest of supporting the best things.

When it comes to innovation, saying no is more than OK-it's essential. Remember, there is a no in innovate.

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Sometimes the best way to innovate is to say no. This may seem counterintuitive, but not if you talk to teachers or administrators who are dealing with initiative fatigue. Ask those educators to list the number of programs that are promoted in August and then completely forgotten by October-year after year after year.

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Communication Patterns of Effective Leadership

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Communication Patterns of Effective Leadership

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In this article, Carol Ann Tomlinson said something that shouted at me. She discussed how those who work for real leaders know that they work with the leader and not for them. To me, this quality represents the definition of teamwork, but how do effective leaders establish a climate of trust and mutual collaboration? The author believed that good communication represents the hallmark of an effective leader.

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In light of our study on instructional rounds, I appreciate this article by Richard F. Elmore. This article focuses on bringing about the change that others want to follow and be part of. In order to truly change, we must impact instructional practice. Elmore (2002) says that "real improvement comes when you visit a classroom where somebody is doing the same thing you are--only much better" (p. 2). How about that for change?

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Creating a Culture of Reciprocal Accountability

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Creating a Culture of Reciprocal Accountability

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This article highlights five leaders new to their prospective schools. Leaders need to come into a school and evaluate all aspects of the organization to get staff members to buy into their vision for a campus. A school's organization resembles the leader at the helm.

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Creating a Culture of Reciprocal Accountability.pdf

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I read this article last year and it still resounds with me. I appreciate the hard question, "Is your school better because you lead it" (B. Kafele, 2017, para. 4). Kafele (2017) gives four domains in which to look inward to determine if you are a leader that others want to follow.

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May 2017 | Volume 74 | Number 8
Lifting School Leaders Pages 10-14

Baruti K. Kafele

For the past year, I have been conducting a workshop with school leaders called "Is my school a better school because I lead it?" I typically have my audiences reflect on this question and prompt them to point to evidence that supports their contentions. Then I ask whether they feel their staff would have similar perceptions. I often have to force myself to leave this question at some point during the workshop because it alone can generate enough reaction and lively discussion to fill up an entire day.

That being said, it's a very difficult question to answer, and school leaders are initially hesitant to address it publicly. There's a vulnerability with this question. It takes courage and honesty to answer-both for leaders who feel that their school is, in fact, a better place because they lead it and for leaders who feel that their leadership is not the difference maker it should be. After I pose the question, I can tell that participants are engaged in deep reflection; it just takes time for them to open up and reveal their responses.

During a workshop I conducted in the Southeast, a principal shared with the group that he felt strongly his school was better off because of his leadership. He provided solid evidence, such as a dramatic increase in assessment scores and a significant improvement in the school's overall climate and culture. In contrast, at a school in the Midwest, one principal emotionally shared that she needed to do more and didn't feel that her leadership was making the impact it could. She said that the question was helpful because it provided her with a continual prompt for self-reflection.

So, I ask you, is your school a better school because you lead it? Are your students in a better position to succeed because you steer the ship? Will your teachers experience exponential professional growth because you lead them? The answers to these questions are related to your overall leadership effectiveness, including your leadership identity, mission, purpose, and vision. Let's explore each.

Leadership Identity

Think about professionals who wear a uniform for their work-firefighters, pilots, chefs, and athletes, for example. When we see these individuals out of uniform, we generally know nothing about what they do professionally or how effectively they do it. When they put on their uniforms, everything changes. We know what they do, which leads us to have expectations about how well they do their work. We expect the firefighter to extinguish fires, the pilot to fly the plane safely, the chef to prepare excellent food, and the athlete to compete to win. In other words, their uniforms give them a professional identity.

Although you likely don't wear a uniform as a principal, your leadership identity works in a similar way. First and foremost, principals must have a firm grasp of who they are as leaders before they walk into the school building each day. Away from school, you are who you are relative to your home life, family, friends, interests, and hobbies. These assets make up your personal identity. But your personal identity is not necessarily your leadership identity. It may inform your leadership identity to some extent, but it's not who you are as the leader of your school.

As you transition every morning from who you are at home to who you are at work, what exactly are you transforming into as your school's leader? What is your identity? What does your presence mean in the eyes of your students, staff, parents, and the community? When your students and staff see or think of you, what comes to mind? Does your leadership identity affect the climate, culture, and achievement in your school? Is how you see yourself consistent with how others view you?

These questions mattered to me when I led schools over the years. In my capacity as principal, I wore an assortment of hats, but at my core, I was a motivator. I saw inspiring and "firing up" my students and staff as my essence. It was my reputation and what my presence represented. I knew that many of my students came to school each day with challenging realities going on at home. I had to ensure that the day always started with an inspiring and empowering morning message to lay a solid foundation for the day by setting a positive tone. Going back to the central question at hand, I am well aware that my role as a motivator made a significant impact on who we were as a school and the results we achieved.

There is no right answer to these questions about identity. The important thing is that you explore them and gain clarity on your role. At a recent workshop with rural and urban principals, one principal determined that she was a nurturer. Nurturing her students was a priority for her, and she devoted a tremendous amount of energy to playing this role for every student in her elementary school. The principal hoped that every one of her 500 students saw her as a nurturer. She felt strongly that her leadership identity played a significant part in creating a positive, warm school climate and culture.

Leadership Mission

With all that is on your plate, what's the one thing you feel you must absolutely accomplish? What drives you above all else and keeps you up at night? What is your leadership mission?

My mission began as an undergraduate student when the plight of black male grade school students became an area of concern for me. I knew I wanted to influence this specific population, but I wasn't sure how to go about doing so. A couple of years later, I decided I would make that impact as a classroom teacher. I eventually became a 5th grade teacher in a predominately black school and focused on helping my boys make the transition from being young males to young men. I taught them the standards and criteria for earning the distinction of being called men.

Several years later, I became an assistant principal and subsequently a principal. Once again, I focused on the young men in my school. It became my mission to defy the stereotypes of black males from urban communities. I intentionally set out to show our young men that they were scholars in every sense of the word. They were what I was about and what drove me.

Do you have a leadership mission, and does it drive what you say and do? It's imperative that you make your mission clear and specific and that you "walk in it" daily. In a recent conversation, an urban principal in the Midwest told me that his mission was to prove that his inner-city, underserved students of color could achieve at the highest levels. He passionately explained to me that he would not allow poverty to be an excuse for himself, his students, his staff, or his students' parents. He was on a mission to show the world that despite poverty, his students were going to soar high.

Leadership Purpose

If your leadership mission is your "what" (as in, "What is your work about?"), then your leadership purpose is your "why" (as in, "Why do you do it?"). My mission was to improve outcomes for black males. Why did I want to do that? My purpose was to empower these young people. I saw what was happening to so many of them across the United States, including massive underachievement and high suspension, dropout, and incarceration rates. I was determined to be part of the solution. I wanted to present a different reality at my school-and I did because my leadership mission had a purpose behind it.

What is your purpose? Why specifically do you do this work? Why did you make the decision to lead a school? Like your mission, your "why" drives what you say and do daily. I don't have to tell you about the enormous challenges of this work, which can become very frustrating. Your purpose keeps you focused on the mission at hand.

An urban principal from the Northeast recently confessed to me that she had led her school for years devoid of a "why." She hadn't considered a "why" until she heard me speak about it in a workshop and decided to develop her leadership purpose. She explained that more than 75 percent of her students read below grade level by the time they reached 3rd grade. Her mission was to ensure that all of these students ended up reading at grade level. Her work was driven by a purpose: She knew that literacy skills have lifelong implications for her students. The principal told me emphatically that her work was much more than a job-it was her reason for walking into the building every morning. Consequently, data now show that her school is on its way to making her mission a reality.

Leadership Vision

Finally, what is your vision for your leadership and school? As a leader, how will your skills evolve? How will you improve and become more effective as a leader one year from today? What will this improvement look like? Your leadership vision is a crucial component of your overall effectiveness. As an example, my leadership vision was to improve in all aspects of school leadership, but particularly as an instructional leader. I knew that as I grew instructionally, both my staff and students would benefit.

It's equally essential to have a vision for your school. Where will your school be in five years as a result of your direction? Although your school's vision statement is important, that's not what I'm referring to here. I'm talking about your personal vision for your school. To what heights will it rise because you are at the helm? In what way will it distinguish itself from other schools?

The vision of the principal matters because before you can think realistically about what your school can accomplish, you must already have a vision for what it will accomplish. For instance, one principal I'm currently working with has a vision for all of her seniors to be accepted into four-year colleges. When she assumed the leadership of the school three years ago, only 42 percent of seniors were college bound, leading skeptics to call her vision unrealistic. Today, 77 percent of her students are headed to college-in large part because of her vision for the school.

Leading with Confidence

"Is my school a better school because I lead it?" It's my strong belief that to lead your school forward, you must consider this question daily. To answer this question affirmatively, you must be absolutely clear about who you are as the school leader, what your mission is, what purpose drives your work, and how you envision the future of your leadership and school. These characteristics determine who you are, what you're about, why you're about it, and where you are going. They serve as a mirror for why you do this work in the first place. You must lead your school with the confidence to say, "Yes, my school is, in fact, a better school because I lead it." And when you do, students win.

Baruti K. Kafele ( www.principalkafele.com) is an award-winning former urban principal in New Jersey and a current education consultant. He is also the author of several books, including The Teacher 50: Critical Questions for Inspiring Classroom Excellence (ASCD, 2016) and The Principal 50: Critical Leadership Questions for Inspiring Schoolwide Excellence (ASCD, 2015). Follow him on Twitter.

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Is Your School Better Because You Lead It?

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May 2017 | Volume 74 | Number 8 Lifting School Leaders Pages 10-14 Baruti K. Kafele For the past year, I have been conducting a workshop with school leaders called "Is my school a better school because I lead it?" I typically have my audiences reflect on this question and prompt them to point to evidence that supports their contentions.

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Transforming Your School with Digital Communication

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Transforming Your School with Digital Communication

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This is a great article about the role of digital communication in schools. Sheninger (2015) offers suggestions for five tools to support digital leadership. Leaders must utilize social media as a way to enhance the learning environment and improve communication with parents, students, stakeholders, and community members.

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April 2015 | Volume 72 | Number 7
Communications Skills for Leaders

Eric Sheninger

In 2009, as principal at New Milford High School in New Jersey, I made a small change that ultimately transformed my leadership style and my school. I shifted from using traditional forms of communication with families and community members-newsletters and e-mail-to using social media. With a click of a mouse, I set up my Twitter account and changed the course of my instructional leadership.

Twitter was my first step in a social media communication strategy that expanded to include a range of tools and approaches. What made these tools different from any I'd used before was their power to reach in all directions. Whether sending updates on school cancellations or tweeting about great student projects, with a few keystrokes, I could share ideas and information with students, students' families, community members, and the larger world-while inviting everyone's responses.

This transformation involved more than new tools. My colleagues and I had to make pedagogical and philosophical shifts, which had a deep impact on New Milford's students and our community. Each of these transformations was powerful for me personally. Watching my colleagues and me learn new things, reach out across geographic divides, and take risks offered a powerful model for students.

As I leveraged social media to enhance our school's impact on learning and our image, I discovered key principles for effectively communicating through digital tools: transparency, flexibility, and accessibility.

Tapping the Power of Transparency

The power of using social media rests in the ability to engage stakeholders in two-way communications. Tools like Instagram, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube let me share information about New Milford more frequently and accurately and provide updates in real time-which engaged more stakeholders than traditional methods had. Teachers, parents, and even outsiders began contributing ideas to New Milford's work.

For this to happen, I had to commit to a new level of transparency and openness. This sometimes meant sharing challenges as well as successes and opening myself to feedback from anyone.

This was the case when I tackled the grading culture at New Milford High School in 2012. At the time, our grading policies were similar to those of most U.S. schools. However, after reviewing the latest research on grading and considering what was best for our students, I knew our current behaviors had to change. Getting detailed information to everyone in the community would be crucial.

The grading shift was one of the most difficult changes to make. When I broke the news to my staff that we were going to revise our grading culture, they reacted with questions, skepticism, and resentment. During initial conversations, I presented up-to-date research, some of which I gathered through social media, to serve as a foundation for changing our system. Social media also enabled me to share with staff perspectives on grading from other educators across the Unites States. Showing teachers how their colleagues in other schools were tackling grading to make learning assessments more beneficial for students went a long way in moving this change forward.

Together, we tackled difficult questions (What does a letter grade actually mean? How do you measure student learning?). A group of teacher volunteers helped establish new grading guidelines and support structures focused on student learning. These included

Using multiple forms of assessment.

Promoting retests and retakes.

Eliminating zeros; students had to keep trying until they got a score of 50 or higher on any graded assignment.

Requiring teachers to meet seven criteria before they gave any student a failing course grade.

To ensure that parents and students were fully aware of the changes and why we made them, I began posting about these new policies on my principal's blog. Before adopting social media, I would have written a traditional memo about the new policies-that might or might not have made it to parents-and placed the information on the school's website. Visibility and access to the information would have been limited. We did place the information in the student handbook, which was linked to from the school website, but blogging enhanced the chances that the entire school community would see it. I pushed out the message using an arsenal of social media tools and our school app, with a hyperlink to my blog posts included.

I received a tsunami of tweets and comments on the blog. Many comments were from other educators offering insights on grading philosophy, including feedback from colleagues around the world as my posts were shared. A handful were from parents asking for more clarification. One student commented openly in support of creating a system that focused more on learning than on quality stamping effort with letters and numbers. A greater discussion on effective grading practices transpired before my eyes.

Reviewing and responding to this feedback took time, but as a leader looking to improve ineffective practices, I felt it was time well spent. The transparency and open dialogue allowed us to build stakeholder support.

Many comments supported our rationale for creating a different system, comments representing different points of view challenged my thinking and afforded me the opportunity to further refine the grading changes we'd made. One comment focused on the importance of avoiding a situation in which one major project has the potential to very negatively affect a student's overall grade. With this information in hand, we made sure to shape our policy to avoid this scenario.

Flexibility: Checking How Our Community Wanted to Communicate

One important aspect of our approach was involving students, parents, teachers, and community members in shaping the tools and processes we would use to communicate. We invited many stakeholders into our leadership and decision-making process.

Students, teachers, and administrators collaborated to develop our school communication app in partnership with a company called Beeonics. The only way we could create a tool that met everyone's needs was to invite representatives from the community to lead the design process. This team shaped the app's requirements and features, a process that involved both face-to-face brainstorming and eliciting feedback through online tools like Facebook and Google Apps.

The result was an app that supported communication in every direction: between students and teachers, between families and school staff, and across the faculty. It enabled students to check grades and submit work, teachers to share assignments and information, and parents to easily connect with teachers and view student progress. It also made it much easier for me to share updates and announcements quickly with all members of the school community.

This experience helped cultivate leadership skills across our student body. It also made clear to families that they were a valued part of the school community. And modeling transparency in school policy changes set an expectation of transparency across the school. Students' focus, too, shifted to sharing work and getting feedback at all levels, including creating work for a wider audience. This increased the quality of work across the board.

Expanding Access to Learning

Digital connections helped me grow professionally. Through Twitter, I discovered like-minded, passionate educators from all over the world. When struggling with a challenge, I could collect diverse ideas-more than my staff and I could have generated-from these colleagues. I engaged in conversations that ultimately improved my professional practice. How liberating to acquire new knowledge, resources, ideas, and feedback from anyone anywhere-while sitting at home in my pajamas!

For the longest time, I felt that professional development was something done to me. It lacked meaning and rarely helped me acquire skills and knowledge that enabled me to create a better school culture. Social media put me on a path to becoming the driver of my own professional learning.

Inspired to offer this kind of learning to my entire school, I began sharing with groups of teachers several ideas, strategies, and tools I'd acquired from my personal learning network. We worked as a team to create a shared vision for integrating social media to enhance teachers' learning, with an emphasis on free web-based tools. At targeted learning sessions after school, I demonstrated how to integrate these tools to enhance learning. Teachers chose from a variety of topics throughout the school year. I followed up with teachers who attended-and used social media to celebrate their successes! As we removed the fear of failure and provided necessary support for a culture of experimentation, teachers began to leverage their newfound autonomy and online tools.

Soon, instructional practices shifted and students also began to harness social media to support their own learning. Rather than limiting themselves to the expertise available within our school, students became part of a global classroom, drawing on expertise from leaders and thinkers around the world.

To provide students and teachers with access to this global classroom, I also needed to make sure the path was clear. Many districts block social media sites to "protect" students. Policies like these can be counterproductive; students will access social media outside school, so why not provide a supportive environment in which they learn to use these tools productively and safely? Digital leaders' work involves helping community and district leaders understand the power of social media for learning and creating tech policies that support access.

Sharing Positive News

From Communications Boost to Public Relations Strategy

Once students and staff embraced this shift of learning from-and sharing with-a wider network, my job was to communicate this positive change far and wide. New Milford's communications strategy evolved into a powerful public relations strategy of targeted blog posts, tweets, and Facebook updates. These communications about the work taking place in our school caught the eye of national media outlets, which began producing news stories focused on our innovative practices.

Educators make a difference every day, but mainstream media often focus on the negative stories. Subtle but hopeful stories-such as a teacher's conversion to a paperless digital learning environment-go unseen and unheard. Social media give school leaders the means to shape and share their school's narrative on their own terms, to highlight the everyday successes and hard work of students and teachers.

Amplifying Students' Stories

As well as raising New Milford's profile and enabling school leaders to tell a more nuanced, optimistic story about our work, digital communication tools empowered students to tell their stories to new audiences. This was the case with a presentation created with digital tools and shared through social media by sophomore Sarah Almeda.

As part of our Academies program, in addition to the added coursework students must complete to receive an Academies certification, students engage in authentic learning activities-field trips or special projects-outside the school day. For one such project, students read Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative by Ken Robinson (Capstone, 2011); watched a video on the importance of creativity in learning; then created a presentation sharing their creative experiences with their Academies group. Students could use any format they wanted-a written document, poster, collage, pin board through Pinterest, or any other media or combination thereof-as long as they answered these questions:

Tell about your creative self and how you are creative.

When do you feel the most inspired?

What stifles your creativity?

Tell about (at least) one other person whose creativity you admire.

What do schools need to do better to enhance students' creativity? Provide an example of something that helped you be more creative-or that would have helped you.

In the resulting presentations, student after student explained the essential role of creativity in their learning-and how they yearned for freedom over how they might demonstrate their present and emerging learning. All students shone as they presented meaningful learning artifacts that reflected their own choices and voices.

Sarah's video (created with a graphics tablet, Bamboo Pad, the iMovie editing program, and QuickTime to record, on the computer screen, Sarah in the act of drawing) was one of the most thought-provoking student presentations I've seen. Not only was it created entirely through self-directed learning, it also sent a strong message about the power of creativity. In the video, Sarah articulated how schools strip creativity away from students and how schools could change this situation.

Social media amplified Sarah's voice and took her project to a whole new level. She uploaded her completed video to YouTube, and we were able to share her project well beyond our school community. To date, it's been viewed more than 10,000 times. With her permission, I shared the link to her video through my Twitter and other social media accounts and posted it on the school Facebook page. Other students, teachers, and schools could now see Sarah's exemplary work. Ken Robinson himself commented on Sarah's project on Twitter and posted the YouTube link to it on his official Facebook page.

The Most Important Transformation

To use social media effectively, I had to see myself as a learner, not just a leader. Making the shift from traditional to digital leadership demanded that I question my own assumptions, acknowledge how much I don't know, take risks, and learn from failure. This transition from a fixed to a growth mind-set was probably the most important component of the transformation at my school.

Just as teachers differentiate instruction for a variety of learning styles in the classroom, school leaders should differentiate our communication efforts if we want true partnerships between home and school. As leaders, we have the power to shape the culture of our schools. Using social media and digital tools as a lever, we can open the door to new ways of learning, thinking, and communicating for all members of our community.

Endnotes

Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks: CA: Corwin Press

In 2013, Newsweek identified New Milford High School as one of the top 2,000 U.S. high schools (and I immediately took to Twitter to share the article)!

Eric Sheninger is a senior fellow with the International Center for Leadership in Education and Scholastic Achievement Partners, and K-12 Director of Technology and Innovation in the Spotswood School District in New Jersey. He is author of Digital leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times (Corwin, 2014).

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Transforming Your School with Digital Communication

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April 2015 | Volume 72 | Number 7 Communications Skills for Leaders Eric Sheninger In 2009, as principal at New Milford High School in New Jersey, I made a small change that ultimately transformed my leadership style and my school. I shifted from using traditional forms of communication with families and community members-newsletters and e-mail-to using social media.