SamTastic Weekly Tip: 6/26/23 - Share the SAM process.

This week’s tip: Share the SAM process.

As the 2022-23 school year comes to a close, it is a good time to reflect on your wins. It is important to have a sense of perspective about your work. No other leader in the business world is tasked with the level of responsibility you carry as a school leader each day.

Nationally, a leader in business is tasked with supervising an average of 10 to 12 employees. School leaders are tasked with supervising, on average, seven times as many employees, teaches and support staff. In addition, school leaders are responsible for creating and maintaining a safe environment for hundreds of children and working with their parents and guardians. The fiscal resources a school leader is given is far less than what business leaders enjoy.

Yet, you do it and are successful. You have TimeTrack data that proves you make a difference. Congratulations! As a TimeTrack user and SAM you are remarkable.

Please take time this week to share the SAM process with one of more of your colleagues in your district. Share the SAM process, too, with a colleague in another district or state. SAM is the only professional development process proven by research to make a positive difference in leader performance, satisfaction and student learning.

NSIP has a clear mission and vision:

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.

As a non-profit company, we increased the number of TimeTrack users by 33% this year. We could use your help as we continue to expand SAM services to more school leaders, districts and states. Would you take a few minutes this week to talk with a colleague in your district who you think would benefit from the SAM process? Would you connect with a colleague in another state or district, too?

You can share the information, below. The most important information to share, however, is your personal experience.

External research confirms SAM principals spend more time on instructional work, are happier, work a shorter day, are better liked by staff and see improved learning results. Once you are doing the SAM process with efficacy, NSIP provides service to your assistant principals, intervention specialists and others in your school in leadership roles at no additional cost.

The annual cost, $4,995, covers all training, use of tools and coaching for the first year for you and any other leader you supervise. Most school leaders use Title I or II, improvement or professional development funds for SAM services.

What is the SAM Process? https://bit.ly/3yuqjWU

TimeTrack: The Leader’s Lesson Plan https://bit.ly/3PecYrJ

SAM Process, 2022 National Conference, Intentionality: https://bit.ly/3Pgy7BK

SAM Process, 2019 National Conference: Purpose https://bit.ly/3svahIK

SAMs on Location: The Impact of School Wide TimeTrack Data Meetings – https://bit.ly/3mr3zA7

For each SAM team, the initial training is done in an all day in-person session or optional on-line, two-hour session. By the end of this session the leader’s TimeTrack will be up and the team will be ready to do the SAM Daily Meeting the next day. The team is also introduced to the advanced features of TimeTrack and is introduced to the SAM Implementation Specialist who will support them online for two weeks during the SAM Daily Meeting. The Specialist also provide additional training time, as needed. We make sure the process is easy and comfortable and will stay as the school needs. A Time Change Coach is then assigned to provide weekly support online.

SAM services include:

• Subscription for use of TimeTrack® cloud-based software at each school site for the principal and other leaders in the school the principal supervises.

• Subscription for use of NoteTrack® cloud-based software at each school site for the principal and other leaders in the school the principal supervises.

• Subscription for use of First Responders® cloud-based software at each school site for the principal and other leaders in the school the principal supervises.

• Subscription includes access to online and in-person technical support for TimeTrack, NoteTrack and First Responders, as needed, each school site.

• Initial training, online, two-hour session; (all day, in-person option available depending on pandemic restrictions)

• Implementation support, ten days at each school site for the SAM Daily Meeting, more as needed, online

• Monthly remote coaching, two-hours, each school site, online

• Weekly online coaching review of TimeTrack with email and/or phone feedback, online

• Subscription, professional development, The Marshall Memo

• Subscription, professional development, The Main Idea

• Online professional development sessions, SAM Talks, featuring national speakers

• Access, NSIP HD recordings and support materials from past conferences

• The national conference is optional ~ $2,495 covers all costs except air

Ready to start? Want more information? Contact NSIP Founder and Executive Director Mark Shellinger: Mark@SamsConnect.com

SamTastic Weekly Tip: 6/19/23 - Make your intentions guide your work.

This week’s tip: Make your intentions guide your work.

SAM teams are all about being intentional. You are constantly focused on what can be done to move the practice of a teacher or group forward.

SAM teams do TimeTrack every day and conduct a Daily Meeting where they not only schedule follow-up events but use their data to be reflective.

AN article by Benjamin Hardy may be helpful for your team’s intentionality. The author shares that the British Olympic rowing team was terrible—they hadn’t won a medal since 1912—but used a technique called “implementation intention” when preparing for the 2002 Olympic games in Sydney.

They used a one question response to every decision they had to

make:

“Will it make the boat go faster?”

“They developed a one-question response to EVERY SINGLE DECISION they made. This one question allowed them to measure every situation, decision, and obstacle —and to not get derailed where most people do.

With every decision or opportunity, every member of the team asked themselves:

WILL IT MAKE THE BOAT GO FASTER?

Example: you get invited to a late-night party the night before training.

WILL IT MAKE THE BOAT GO FASTER?

If the answer is no... then the decision is no.

Tempted to eat a doughnut?

WILL IT MAKE THE BOAT GO FASTER?

The British rowing team used this single question —a profound implementation intention —to quickly escalate their unity, skills, conditioning, and training.”

What would your life look like if you measured every decision you made against your future vision?

How much more intentional and thoughtful would the DETAILS of your life be if you spent more time in your future, thinking, scheming, planning, then ACTING?

WILL IT MAKE THE BOAT GO FASTER?

As a SAM team, what is your question for the 2023-24 school year?

Happy Juneteenth National Independence Day.

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

SamTastic Weekly Tip: 6/12/23 - Consider President Biden’s advice.

This week’s tip: Consider President Biden’s advice.

“Leadership, at its core, in my view, is about being personal. You always put yourself in the other person’s position, and then also to understand where they’re coming from, whether it’s a major foreign leader or a friend who you have a disagreement with. And it’s also being willing to share credit, give recognition, and share in the benefits as well as in the losses if you’re in an endeavor together.” President Joe Biden

Leading successfully requires empathy. It is less about checklists than checking-in. It is more about listening than telling, coaching than evaluating and building capacity than forcing compliance.

As a SAM team you know success, improving teacher practice and student learning, happens with frequent, thoughtful, and kind support. Your TimeTrack gives you the record of your work and the data to drive your creative thinking.

In this time of division in the United States, and puzzling and illogical refusal to accept facts from any source, keep in mind that a successful school leader has a greater goal. It won’t help being right if you can’t connect with people. Instead, accept that as a school leader, you have friends and potential friends. You can’t afford to have enemies. Keep trying to connect. Reaching your goal of improved teaching and learning depends on creating maintaining a positive environment, or culture, in your school and district.

The work you do in your SAM Daily Meeting can make this happen.

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