A Typical Day

Regularly, I am asked, "What did you do at work, today?" Embarrassingly, I'm not always able to answer that question. And it isn't because the nature of my work is top-secret. Instead, there are more days than not that are so full that they are over before I've ever had a chance to come-up for air. Education is busy work.

That's is why I'm glad that Adam Welcome (@awelcome) posed the challenge - pick a day and blog, via a list, about everything that we (principals) do during a given day - to our #PrincipalsInAction Voxer group (check out Adam's blog on the topic, which will be released via Ed Week). This would be a good opportunity for me to try to slow down, reflect on what it is that I am doing, and think about how I spend my time in-order to best meet the needs of our staff, students, and other school community.

So, as a principal of a K-2 elementary school, what do I do all day? I should warn you, there is a lot here; this is a long post, much longer than I had initially imagined.

Anyways, here is a little bit of an insight as to what I do on a typical day (this typical day just happened to be on Monday, September 28th, 2015).

• I arrived at school just before 8am, in-time for the mini-PD sessions that some of our Grant Wood Area Educational Agency consultants were leading for our teachers in the areas of Google Docs/Drive and Twitter. I participated in the Twitter session.
• At the conclusion of our Twitter PD, I went outside to greet our students on the playground/on their way into the school. 
• I then led the morning announcements over the intercom with the help of some of our second grade students.
• After the announcements, our superintendent arrived; I joined him in my office as we visited with one of our tech consults who was sticking around for the day, making herself available to our teachers via a format similar to a college professor's office hours. She was explaining to us the items that she'd brought to demo - Bee Bot and Blue Bot, Dash and Dot, and a Sphero Ball (all programming robots), a Little Bits circuit set, a mini drone, and an Osmo. 
• We took the drone out to the hallway where a kindergarten class was walking by on their way to the library. One student was struggling to follow along with his peers; fortunately flying the drone down the hallway serves as a pretty good motivator to get him to the library. 
  
• Back in my office, our superintendent, our tech consultant, and myself had a conversation about technology in education.
• Quickly I checked my voicemail, and returned a phone call.
• I headed out of my office and into a classroom to grab a student who I've been trying really hard to connect with; I brought this student to my office to let him demo one of our programming robots.
• I was called down to a classroom to assist with a student. That student and I had a conversation, and he went back to his class.
• I had a conversation with our school counselor in regards to a student that we've both been spending quite a bit of time working with.
• Stopped-in, quickly, to two of our second grade classrooms while I was down in that end of the hallway.
• On my way back down the hallway, I checked-in with a student who had been sent-out of the classroom. We had a conversation, and with my support he re-entered the classroom.
• I returned to my office, to have a brief conversation with our tech consultant about some follow-up to the Twitter PD that we'd done this morning/
• A student was brought to my office as a result of him failing to stay on task and complete his work. Together, we went back to his classroom, and with my assistance, he completed his work requirements. 
• A student had earned a break so he came to my office where he was able to experiment with Little Bits circuit set.
  
• Again, I walked down the hallway seeking-out one of our special education teachers to discuss some recess options for one of her students.
• Back in the office, I checked-in with our nurse, upon hearing of a multitude of students not feeling well throughout the building.
• Back out in the hallway, I stopped into a classroom where students were reading to self. I sat with two students for a moment listening to them read and reading with them.
• I went to find two students to check-in with. One of the two students was reading to self; I praised this student for doing such a good job of being on task. The other student needed some help getting started with a spelling/word work activity so I sat down and helped her get started.
• Quickly, I glanced at my email noticing that there was an email needing a reply regarding confirmation of a meeting scheduled for later in the day. So I responded to that particular email, and I left the rest for later.
• Again, I touched-base with our school counselor regarding the same student that we'd discussed earlier in the morning.
• I was called to a classroom to assist with a student. I spent some time with this particular student waiting for him to calm-down to the point that he could have a conversation with me. Once he was ready, we role played a better way to respond when told that we have to wait to use the restroom.
• Our tech consultant and I took our drone outside to the playground, but...the battery wasn't cooperating. It didn't fly.
• I came back inside and checked in with a class/student.
• Upon exiting that last classroom, I happened upon a student who wasn't willingly transitioning back to his classroom. I had a conversation with the student, and we went back into his classroom.
• Again, I quickly checked my email to see if any emails needed an immediate response.
• I found a student in the hallway who was working on finishing the writing prompt, "This weekend, I..." I sat with the student and helped him finish his writing. While working with this student, I showed him a picture of the work that my son had done at his school. The student remarked, "Where you proud of him?" I replied by saying, "I was! Just like I'm proud of you for finishing your work!" I thought that this was a really neat moment. I then helped transition this same student back into the classroom where I sat with him for five minutes.
• I went back to my office where I attempted to make a positive phone call home in regards to one of our students. No answer. I shared the minor celebration via voice mail.
• Back in the hallway, I walked a student down to the gym so that he could join the rest of his class for P.E.
• Back in my office, while attempting to eat lunch, I had to prepare a CPI form to be sent home and to our administrative office.
• I checked-in with our secretary to find-out what my crossing guard duties would be while I filled-in for one of our associates who was out for the day.
• A second grade student, probably the biggest Green Bay Packers fan in our school, brought me a picture that he had drawn for me of the Chicago Bears (he knows that I am a big Chicago Bears fan).
• I replied to a teacher's email where she was inviting me into her classroom to watch her students graph their progress; unfortunately, I had to decline the invitation (this time).
• I left the office to do a couple of classroom walkthroughs.
• I was told about a student struggling to come inside from recess so I headed to the playground and worked on getting him back inside and into his classroom.
• Our tech consultant found me to tell me that the drone was charged so I got to fly it for a few minutes in the hallway.
• Shortly before 2pm, I had to cross town to go to our district's other K-2 building to have a meeting regarding our School In Need of Assistance plan
• At 3pm, I returned to school in-order to perform my crossing guard duties at dismissal.
  
• After my crossing guard duty ended, we had a building leadership team meeting scheduled from 3:45 to 4:45.
• My day wasn't done yet. For the next two hours I caught-up on email, had a cup of coffee, made copies, signed forms and requests, and sorted some papers.
• At 7pm, I was present for our school board meeting.
• After the board meeting, while driving home I was able to return a couple of phone calls and get caught up on some of my Voxer groups. 
• A little before 8:30pm, I arrived home...just in time to read my son a book as he was getting ready for bed.