Principals On My Mind

I set a goal for myself earlier this year to visit each of our four facilitated School Leader Networks at least once. Two down, two to go. Truth be told, I'd love to go a lot more often but I am reluctant to insert myself into the private, professional space these colleagial networks have created for themselves.

What kinds of things are these school leaders doing when they meet, you ask. I can say with certainty that, although an evening meal at a decent restaurant is involved in these monthly meetings, there is a lot more talking than eating going on. The meal, I think, only serves as an excuse for being with each other. My conclusion was born out last year when our budget forced us to stop paying for their meals and principals had to pick up their own tab. Guess how many principals stopped coming? Zero.

No, what is happening is peer-to-peer learning, the most powerful professional development on earth. Our trained facilitators (and in no particular order), Muriel Summers, Jesse Dingle, Sherron Leplin, Terry Rogers, Lynn Williams, Wiladean Thomas, Denise Tillery, and David Ansbacher--themselves current or recent principals--lead conversation around shared problems of practice. I've never sat in on the deliberations of a team of medical or legal experts readying itself for action but I can imagine that what they might do is not unlike what our principals engage in. And in the four years TLA has sponsored them, they are getting better and better at it.

Here's what I've seen at meetings I've attended so far: Everyone at the table takes a turn checking in emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and of course physically; professional readings are discussed; current school issues are shared; how-to knowledge is swapped; poems are read; music is listened to. The hunger for affiliation among these people performing a job sometimes so difficult it could make angels cry is palpable.

To my everliving shame and after all this time, we are finally getting around to presenting these principals and their facilitators a certificate at their district-wide principals meeting this month. I've signed them, facilitators have signed them, and superintendents have signed them. Our acknowledgment seems so inadequate a reward for these dedicated professionals. Maybe that's why I've waited so long. If you see one of our facilitators, thank him or her and ask that they thank their network principals on behalf of us.