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The Tip Sheet Today's Informed Principal
Sept. 29, 2020
Our Vision for a Community of Principals
Personalized, On-Demand Workshops
The clock is ticking. There’s so much to do, not enough time, and our school communities are looking to us for strong leadership. Principals in San Diego County face a non-stop stream of complex and critical decisions, and we’re here to help with free, personalized, on-demand workshops. Principals identify a current challenge or problem of practice to examine and address during a customized 90-minute workshop session, and work individually with a small team of experienced former principals to address that unique leadership challenge.

Site leaders can get customized and confidential support with problem-solving, design, and action-planning to meet the needs of students, staff, and school communities.

You are invited to engage with thought partners around current leadership challenges including:
  • Leading in a virtual setting
  • Supporting school culture and climate
  • Instruction and learning
  • Teacher feedback and support
  • Student and family engagement
  • Professional learning
This Week
Appreciative Inquiry: Communicating with Faculty and Staff in Service of a Positive School Culture

Responding to the concerns of school staff members during a pandemic can take a toll on your emotional health, especially while working to nurture a positive school culture. Principals have the opportunity to activate change and leverage strengths through the use of appreciative inquiry and leadership voice. Here are some strengths-based questions (adapted from Evoking Greatness) to help you to communicate your care and compassion with your staff:

  • What are you trying in the distance learning space that is working, even if only partially? 
  • What personal or professional values do you hold true to even though this is a tough situation? 
  • What are you learning about what works for your students? 
  • How is this experience having a positive impact on your (personal/professional) development? 
  • What is the best thing you have tried in this situation, no matter how small? 
  • What supports from / collaboration with colleagues have been useful?

Inquiring into and appreciating strengths is a way for people to set aside their negative internal voices and to envision and experiment with wholly new ways of understanding and doing things. Positive energy and emotions disrupt a downward spiral and build the inherent aspirations of people into a dynamic movement for transformational change.
                  — Megan and Bob Tschannen-Moran, Evoking Greatness (p. 101)
Follow us on social media: @sd_principals on Twitter and @sd_principals on Instagram.
Virtual Community Forums Begin on Tuesday

Connect with a community of principals from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday for the new, monthly virtual community forum for school leaders. Using an unconference format, each forum will be a participant-driven gathering where the agenda is co-developed by our community of school leaders. You set the topics, share resources, and shape the dialogue. Our SDCOE team will host a virtual space and provide the structure to raise critical issues and solicit input from others regarding current challenges in school leadership. Each forum will have two rounds of breakout discussions, with access to notes and resources generated from all the different breakouts available to everyone following the meeting.

Sign up using this form and mark your calendar for these dates:
  • Sept. 29
  • Oct. 27
  • Dec. 1
  • Jan. 26
  • Feb. 23
  • March 30
  • April 27
PLEASE NOTE: These virtual community forums are a different offering from the Grand Canyon University Principals Collaborative Community series.
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If you have any questions or comments about The TIP Sheet newsletter email SDCOE Executive Leadership Coach Jeff Warshaw or call 858-295-8919.
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