SamTastic Weekly Tip: 9/23/24 - Do you know your new TimeTrack has many new features?

Do you know…

Your new TimeTrack has many new features. Mary Grupe is a successful SAM principal at a large Missouri high school.  Her TimeTrack is always in the Green. She uses a new feature to include the schedule of her significant other on her TimeTrack.  Look below.  “BL” her significant other, is a coach in the same district.

She includes his coaching schedule by using a new feature that is available for any event you enter:  Exclude from Data.  This allows you to include an event that you aren’t’ doing yourself, but don’t want it to trigger the red conflicting event alert.

How do you do this?  Simply enter an event as usual and select Exclude from Data before clicking save or enter.

Speaking of alerts, Time Change Coaches will be looking at your TimeTrack to check two things this week:

1. Is your SAM Daily Meeting on your TimeTracks scheduled for each day…and is it clearly labeled?

2. Are you associating people/classrooms with all seeing instruction events:  Observation, Walkthrough, Work w/Students and Student Learning Supervision?

On a different subject, if you are planning to attend the 18th Annual National SAM Conference, and haven’t registered, don’t wait: registration has been very fast and there are only 74 seats left.   

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• In-person SAM Training Wednesday:  Blytheville, Arkansas

• In-person SAM training Thursday:  Buffalo, New York

• In person SAM training Friday:  Rochester, New York

Mission: The National SAM Innovation Project provides a comprehensive process and set of tools designed to develop effective instructional leaders resulting in greater student success.

Vision: The National SAM Innovation Project will provide SAM services in every state resulting in greater teacher and learner success.

SamTastic Weekly Tip: 9/16/24 - How are your First Responders doing?

How are your First Responders doing?

Open your First Responder list on your TimeTrack.  Circle the management areas that you have not had to deal with this school year because your First Responders have been successful in getting people help faster, without pulling you away from the instructional work you had scheduled each day.

Do these First Responders know the impact they have on your success?  This is a teachable moment.  It is never a waste of time to let someone know that you appreciate them…and…more importantly, why.

Many First Responders believe their work, taking the first crack at dealing with management issues, makes a difference in students success.  They have a principal who makes it clear that this work, of getting people help faster, allows instructional work to improve teacher practice and student learning, to happen. 

So, Sams, schedule your principal for three “thank you” meetings with First Responders this week.  Practice with your principal.  Can the principal show TimeTrack records showing the increased instructional time that would not have happened without the First Responder’s work?  If not, help.  These meetings are important.

Some of your best educators in your school are not licensed teachers.  Many support staff members have an outsized role in student success.  Recognizing this has an important impact on building the school culture you desire.  Plus, it feels good.

I encountered a day custodian in a large high school in Gwinnett County, Georgia, a few years ago.  He asked if I was that “SAM guy.”  I said yes.  He said, “I bet you think your First Responder system works.”  I told him I thought it did, but wondered what he thought.  His response surprised me.

“Of course it works. I no longer ask my principal what to do when I already know the answer.  I “get it” that this allows him to do the work with teachers that he needs to do.  But that’s not the biggest way I make a difference in this school improving student performance.  The big thing I do is keeping my principal on track.  When I see my principal, I click the SAM app on my iPhone, look at his TimeTrack, and see if he is where he is supposed to be.  If not, I walk up and say: “Principal Jones, you are supposed to be in Mrs. Stevens room in the science wing.  Let me walk you there and we can talk Atlanta Falcons’ football on the way.”  That’s how I make a real difference.”

This commitment, and passion to make a difference, exists in every staff member in your building.  Your job is to nourish and support this so your students and school community benefit.

Two reminders: 

1. If you are planning to attend the 18th Annual National SAM Conference, Miami Beach, don’t wait.  84% of rooms have already been taken.  Use this link to register:  https://registration.samsconnect.com/

2. NSIP Board President Bert Hendee is taking applications for the seat on the Board designated for a SAM principal.  Applications are due September 20.  Use this link to download the application.  https://bit.ly/3AeqJnd

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In-person SAM Training this week: 

• Columbia, Missouri

In-person SAM training next week: 

• Columbia, South Carolina

• Online training:  Denver, Colorado, The Bronx, New York

Music Video: I Am a SAM  https://bit.ly/48OCjCm

Mission: The National SAM Innovation Project provides a comprehensive process and set of tools designed to develop effective instructional leaders resulting in greater student success.

Vision: The National SAM Innovation Project will provide SAM services in every state resulting in greater teacher and learner success.

SamTastic Weekly Tip: 9/9/24 - Do Your Events Connect?

Do Your Events Connect?

I bet you are in the GREEN this morning. 

When you have your SAM Daily Meeting, take a few minutes to look at last week.  Can you find connections between instructional events? 

Research is clear.  You have to connect your work to improve teacher practice.  Did you work with students in a class while you watched a teacher’s lesson?  Can you find a feedback session later in the week?  A PD session or time with the teacher in a PLC?

We expect classroom teachers to connect their work with students from day to day to build skills and knowledge.  Doing the same in your work with teachers, and other staff, makes sense for the same reason.

Building relationships is important, too.  A SAM principal in Georgia meets weekly with her five new teachers as a group.  She facilitates a conversation each week without an agenda.  She lets the teachers pick what they’d like to talk about.  It allows her to model the value of reflection and constructive conversation.   When needed, she uses a prompt to get things started.  She works hard to stay non-directive.  At her next SAM Daily Meeting she schedules follow-up with one of more of the new teachers:

• One of the four kinds of seeing instruction

• Teaching and modeling

• Directive or celebratory feedback

• Attend a grade level/subject area PLC meeting

Connecting the principal’s work requires intentionality.  This Georgia SAM principal has a great SAM who consistently asks how to connect one event with another. 

In-person SAM Training this week:  The Bronx, New York

In-person SAM training next week:  Columbia, Missouri and Columbia, South Carolina

Online registration is open for the 18th Annual National SAM Conference.  This looks to be our best conference, ever, with a great line-up of keynote presenters, pre-conference workshops and breakout sessions.

Use this link to register and follow the prompts. 

https://registration.samsconnect.com/

Additional conference links:

• Tentative Draft Agenda (with descriptions)

• Pre-Conference Session Descriptions

• Keynote Session Descriptions

  
  

NSIP Board President Bert Hendee is taking applications for the seat on the Board designated for a SAM principal.  Applications are due September 20.  Use this link to download the application.  https://bit.ly/3AeqJnd