SamTastic Weekly Tip: 7/17/23 - Set Your Monthly Instructional Time Goals

This week’s tip: Set Your Monthly Instructional Time Goals

July first each year your TimeTrack resets for the new school year.

SAMs and TimeTrack users must decide what goals they would like to set for each month. It helps to look at what you achieved last year. When you click on your dashboard go to the options tab to select data from the 2022-23 school year. This will show you the goals you had last year…and if you met them each month.

To set your goals for the new school year follow these steps:

1. click the orange TimeTrack logo, upper left-hand corner

2. select Settings

3. select monthly goal set-up

4. Enter goals for each month, July through June. Click set once you’ve entered a goal for each month. Don’t worry if a month has a lot of vacation days—TimeTrack will only count the days you are working.

A second set-up step for the new school year is to let TimeTrack know which days to count.

Use your district calendar to follow these steps:

1. Click on the orange TimeTrack logo, upper left-hand corner

2. Select Settings

3. Select contact day set-up

4. Turn blue days to gray if it is a vacation or holiday—a day the leader is not expected/required to work—this tells TimeTrack not to count the day when calculating the amount of time spent instructionally engaged.

Have you wondered how much time school leaders who do not do the SAM process spend each day instructionally engaged? The amount ranges from 14% to 25% based on shadowing studies conducted by NSIP and independent/external researchers. SAM principals spend the majority of their time, 50%+, doing instructional leadership work. It is also true that the higher your performance is on the annual rubric assessment the higher your instructional leadership time is each year.

All five keynotes and five selected breakout sessions from the l6th Annual, 2023, National SAM Conference are now available in HD video: https://bit.ly/3AlRxyX

SamTastic Weekly Tip: 7/10/23 - NSIP Summer Board Meeting Report

This week’s tip: NSIP Summer Board Meeting Report

From Bert Hendee, President NSIP Board of Directors

Your NSIP Board of Directors meets in-person twice each year, the day before the annual National SAM Conference and the end of June. The Board’s purpose is to support the organization, staff, SAM teams and our progress toward the NSIP vision and mission.

The Board met June 25, 2023. Among the things we did was to review the results of the recent rubric assessment that all teams completed. We were so pleased with 100% participation in this process by TimeTrack users. Of those completing Rubric 1, an overall average of 52.64% of their time was instructionally focused. For TimeTrack users completing Rubric 2, the overall instructional time was 65.67%. Your comments were insightful and gives us much to think about as we help our organization and process move forward in the future.

We were also very impressed by the increase in time TimeTrack users spend seeing instruction and giving feedback. The increase directly corelates with rubric levels and is substantially higher than the national average.

We also decided to add a second SAM process practitioner to the board of directors. The Board added a seat for a current SAM principal several years ago. The new seat will be for a current SAM. Applications will be available after Labor Day. If you are a practicing SAM, we hope that you will seriously consider applying for this position. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to any board member at any time. Our contact information is on the NSIP website, www.SamsConnect.com

Sincerely,

Roberta “Bert” Hendee

NSIP Board President

All five keynotes and five selected breakout sessions from the l6th Annual, 2023, National SAM Conference are now available in HD video: https://bit.ly/3AlRxyX

SamTastic Weekly Tip: 7/5/23 - Realize You are Different than the Average School Leader

This week’s tip: Realize you are different than the average school leader

SAM and TimeTrack leaders are far better than they may realize. Leading Forward, formerly National Staff Development Council, suggests that only 13% of leader time is spent focused on leading the instructional program.

In the years leading up to the pandemic, NSIP shadowed 5,000+ school leaders for five days, each, taking data every five minutes. The result: The average school leader spends 28% of their day instructionally engaged. This is a far better assessment of leader use of time than the “guess” made by Learning Forward/NSDC…but not nearly as good as what leaders do once they start the SAM process.

SAM leaders crush this indicator of leader focus and effectiveness. The average instructional time, for over 1,000 TimeTrack users during the 2022-23 school year, is 52%, nearly the four times greater that the NSDC/Learning Forward guess.

Even better, the longer a leader does the SAM process the more time they spend instructionally engaged:

The research also shows that school communities like SAM principals better, believe management is better handled and appreciate the clear student-centered focus of the principal. Is it any wonder that the research also shows that SAM leaders are happier, more optimistic?

Even better, SAM leaders spend twice as much time in classrooms, seeing instruction, than leaders who have not started the SAM process yet. Even better, the amount of time spent giving non-directive feedback increases by three fold.

Your job is tough. Likely harder than any other leadership position. Take a breath and realize that, as a SAM leader, you are the cream of the crop. Your effort and work make a difference.

All five keynotes and five selected breakout sessions from the 16th Annual, 2023, National SAM Conference are now available in HD video: https://bit.ly/3AlRxyX