Setting Your Sights on with A-aron Dr. Aron Gabriel August 6, 2014

What’s Your Vision for the New School Year?

How will we do it? Who? What do we want to accomplish?

Activity Slide Project/Read your school’s mission statement Ask table teams to review your school’s mission statement to make sure you have the 3 principle parts of a mission statement represented Ask table teams to provide proposed revisions to the school mission statement for you on sticky notes (or onto a shared document to capture feedback) Away from the opening meeting, affinitize the feedback into themes and provide a few different options for your school mission statement In as timely manner as possible, send the proposals out to staff to vote on Adopt the mission statement that was selected At the next available meeting time, have staff members sign the mission statement as a symbol of their agreement/belief in the school mission for the upcoming school year

Activity Slide Talk to staff members about the mission statement of your school While acknowledging that you will be reviewing the mission statement revision proposals, talk to staff members about what they believe as educators to be the most important beliefs/actions they can embody Ask table teams to come up with 2-3 non-negotiable beliefs/actions to form the core values/essentials of your school Collect and affinitize staff input for your school’s core values/essentials Send out the document for staff to vote on/provide additional revision suggestions if needed Adopt the core values/essentials for your school for the upcoming school year

Help Me Help You What do you expect from me as a principal? (assist in my goal setting for this year, 2-3 goals) What do you need from me to do your job better? (resources, support, etc…)

Practical Follow-Up Steps Meet with teachers either during their respective planning times/before-after school/ to discuss your progress towards the goals they gave you at the opening faculty meeting and ask staff for possible next steps to improve the gap areas. Review Mission and Core Values quarterly with faculty and ask staff for feedback/suggested revisions

Timeless Thoughts on Leadership Pay attention to small details about your workers (you’ll run past more than you’ll ever catch) and value them as individuals with hopes, dreams, and struggles….regardless of their overall worth as an employee Be yourself even if you are not by nature a “people person” The Karate Kid approach to leadership The Power of the Individual Conversation Momentum is what separates potential from reality The right to be right should not exceed the right to be heard Some people you lead; other people you manage

Investments and Withdrawals.…. ●Investment involves some level of sacrifice. ●It is next to impossible to gain a profit if you haven’t invested anything. ●Sometimes you are able to withdraw a higher proportion than you invested. ●Sometimes you invest much more than you are able to withdraw. ●Sometimes you lose everything you invest. This often leads to hesitance in investing in the future. ●Sometimes you invest more in certain stocks than you do others. ●The higher the risk, the higher the reward. ●Investing in a savings account is a safe investment, but it yields far less returns. ●Remember that investments always come before withdrawals

Relativism vs. Absolutes Absolute – Black and White Relativism – Grey We all tend to gravitate to one philosophy or the other We can’t require something of others that we don’t require for ourselves

Answer the following questions to yourself: Did I miss a deadline? Have I been disrespectful to a peer or a superior? Did I come in late or leave campus without permission? Did I miss enough days during a 9 weeks to earn an FA? Did I use profanity on campus/around others? Did I ever neglect to read the lone per week from the IF (Know & Do) or daily from Gabriel? Did I ever break dress code? Did I ever use cell phones during class?

**How do you respond to your students when they: -don’t turn in an assignment? -are disrespectful to you or a peer? -are tardy or leave class without permission? -exceed the allowable number of absences? -use profanity in your presence? -break dress code? -use electronic devices during class? Answer the following questions to yourself:

CHEROKEE WOLF STORY

Watch Your… by Frank Outlaw: Watch your thoughts, for they will become your words. Watch your words, for they will become your actions. Watch your actions, for they will become your habits. Watch your habits, for they will become your character. Watch your character, for it will become your destiny.