Middle Leaders Conference - August 2019

Leading from the Middle 

- Dr. Tom Hoerr - 

Tom Hoerr - 37 8 4 150 5 - love the number introduction! 

#ProfReading

- The Formative Five fostering Grit, Empathy, and Other Success Skills every student needs 

- Taking Social Emotional Learning Schoolwide 

- Improving Schools from Within (Barth)

- The Relationship Cure - the Rule of Five  

Leadership Biases

1. Teachers are the key factor in determining the quality of a school

2. The leader's job is NOT to make teachers grow

3. The Leader's job IS to facilitate and support everyone's growth

4. Leaders are change agents

Social Power (French & Raven) 

• Reward, Coercive, Legitimate, Referent, Expert PLUS Relationship Power

Relationships are Key - "true listening and understanding only occurs when the other person understands that you understand" Henry Cloud 

Reflect: How are we investing TIME into people? How do we find the positives in people? 5:1 (rule of 5). Human Nature - are we taking things for granted?  

5 Compliments, 1 criticism, question, neutral statement, missed opportunity, maybe even suggestion.

Focusing on PROGRESS and TRAJECTORY 

eg:  Most Improved...

Reflect: How might we support effort & positive trajectory? What is being done already? What could we do? What could you do?

Mistakes can be good - we learn from these

- old, no, Make NEW mistakes

Develop GRIT by making mistakes - taking risks.

Reflect: How are we creating opportunities for our learners and staff to make mistakes and LEARN? Effective teaching as inquiry is all about NEW LEARNING, responding to our learners' needs.

Whose Decision is it? 

Decision - the WHAT was not as big as the HOW it was made (Process)

Empower or Reduce

HOW - impacts on the culture 

WHO decides- is it: your? my? our? decision

What causes resistance to change?

Lessons Learnt:

shared vision, clear direction, the tools required (ours, theirs)

Which tools (habits) do we need to 'drop'?

Excellence versus Perfection

move to excellence not necessarily perfection! Hard in the profession but totally understandable.

Tom Hoerr trhoerr@newcityschool.org 

Pio Terei is our MC today