Hack 2

Listen

So we know the ‘why’ behind this work. Chapter two helps to find the ‘how’ do we learn and lead from this knowledge-in whatever position you hold in your school or district. This ‘active’ listening allows us to be in the classrooms, on the playground, and in parent drop off lanes to see the learning in meaningful ways.

Learn

• Unconventional Leadership in the Early Years-Podcast with Better Leaders Better Schools.  
• Teacher for the Day. Reflections from a Principal turned Kindergarten Teacher.
• Hall P., Simeral A., ( 2008) Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success: A Collaborative Approach for Coaches and School Leaders. ASCD.

Lead

1. In what ways could you expand your ‘feet’ work in your school/district/community?
2. How can you document this learning? How are you thanking those who you are visiting?
3. What time management strategies will be necessary to delegate tasks to dedicate time to this type of work?

Follow

Mark French #PrincipalsinAction Ross Cooper

Want to know one way to lead from your feet?

Hack 3

Listen  

The Chapter on….Pinterest.  It is a hard balance, and a daily reflection to ensure we are providing learning environments that are engaging, 

fun,purposeful and relevant for the foundational learning today that will accelerate opportunities for all students tomorrow. That type of delicate and daily balance requires a commitment from all teacher to define what it is we want students to learn and how we will assess and document that learning consistently. Connecting the heart, art and mind of teaching are critical at this stage of learning with littles because, well, it goes so fast.

Learn

• Learning to Lead a PLC.
• Starting a Movement, Ken Williams, and Tome Hierck
• Minnesota Department of Education. (2017) Practice Brief 1 – ECIPs as the Foundation for the Intentional Teaching Process 

Lead

1. How can you enhance (or establish) a team of educators that can create the essential outcomes that vertically connect preK-3rd grade?
2. In what ways should this professional learning be monitored?
3. Whoo-hoo! How do you celebrate those little and big milestones-for your students, your peers and yourself?

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Ken Williams

Want to know how To collaborate with others?

Hack 4

Listen  

Learning the hidden and visible rules of your first school experiences can be challenging. And research continues to show that for students who are identified at-risk, this learning curve can at times be an insurmountable challenge. More education, more conversations, and clear expectations that are relevant and developmentally appropriate for our hurting learners will only support their learning as they grow.

Learn

• Challenging Behavior Template
• Ross Greene: Lives in the Balance
• US Department of Education/ Office for Civil Rights. A First Look: Key Data Highlights on Equity and Opportunity Gaps in Our Nation’s Public Schools.  
• What Works Clearinghouse
• Yardsticks, by Chip Wood
• Emotional Readiness: How Early Experience and Mental Health )Predict School Success.  

Lead

1. What are you key social-emotional skills that all students should have? How do you teach, re-teach and reinforce these skills throughout the year?
2. What role does your own emotional state play into how you work with students to reteach expectations after a misstep?
3. How can mindful practices play a role in the development of Social Emotional Learning for students (and adults)?

Follow

Todd Neselony Bethany Hill

Want to know How to build relationships with students? Ask Them.

Hack 5

Listen  

When we stop worrying about all the things technology couldn’t do for us-we can start thinking about all the opportunities it has for our students. Listening to what students are interested in and aligning innovative practices to those ideas will only amplifying what we are currently doing. Allow teachers opportunities to face their own fears of trying new tools-in professional development, taking the tools home, and cheering them on when they try them in the classrooms of your school.

Learn

• Reimagining Classrooms: Teachers as Learners and Students as Leaders | Kayla Delzer | TEDxFargo
• Packer In Training Coding Club Resources
• Future Ready Schools
• Erikson Institute: Technology in Early Childhood.
• Technology and Digital Media in the Early Years Tools for Teaching and Learning.
• Lifelong Kindergarten

Lead

1. What have you tried already? Offer informal workshops, Appy Hours or playdates to try out tools. Log into http://scratchjr.org/ or https://code.org/ or http://www.daisythedinosaur.com/ and try it for yourself, invite some students to try it with you and see where the learning goes.
2. What was your biggest failure in implementing technology in your classrooms and what did you learn from it?
3. Who are you connecting with on this journey? How are you sharing your learning with other educators in your school, your local community and beyond?

Follow

Angie Kalthoff, Christine Pinto

Want to know how to Code with Kindergartners?

Hack 6

Listen

When did play became the forbidden four-letter word in school? With academic expectations and standardized testing becoming more and more prioritized at younger and younger ages it is important to be armed with information that address the critical importance of having both high expectations and play in all grades.

Learn

• Play in the ‘New’ First Grade.
• Exploring Play. NAEYC
• Rae Pica

Lead

1. What are your own memories of play in the early grades?
2. How can you explain to community members, administrators, and educators in the upper grades about the importance of play in student’s school day?
3. In what ways can you carve out time in the instructional day for moments and opportunities for student-directed play?

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KindersmorgasboardAnna Dutke

Want to know how to Share the importance of play?

Hack 7

Listen

When we are working together, PreK and K-12, in authentic ways-communication, collaboration and high expectations for all students becomes the real focus of everyone’s work. Finding ways to work and learn together and less in isolation from the each other is critical to ensure the transition between the two systems is kid and family-focused first.

Learn

• Essential Questions to Consider
• 5 Easy Ways to Build Authentic and Genuine Relationships with Your Students by Colleen Schmit

Lead

1. Do you know which schools your students come from or are going to? Challenge  yourself to a site visit this year to see this different setting and get to know the incredible educators educating the children everyone is serving.
2. Got awesome PD? Invite the preK or K-3 teachers over to join you.
3. Show some love. Early in the school year send a note to the former teacher thanking them for something incredible they did that made a difference in the student’s life.

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Colleen Schmit

Want to know how to show kids you care?

Hack 8

Listen  

When we frame interactions with families coming from a place of building opportunities to learn from their child’s first teacher we can start having a meaningful conversation with parents. Finding time to build those relationships requires creativity, effort and time to engage with parents in any way possible.

Learn

• All In! Finding Ways to Create Partnerships with Families in Your School
• Creating Meaningful Transitions from PreK-K
• In, Out and Around the Box: Creative Ways to Partner with Families.
• Woodson Parent Blog
• Search Institute
• Learn Forward: An Invitation to the the Most Important Journeys of a Child. Learn Forward Solutions Inc.  

Lead

1. Help?!? I am having a hard time connecting face to face with a family and we are approaching the end of the first month of school-what should I do?
2. How has technology and social media enhanced relationships with parents and provided them a lens into the learning of their child?
3. A tough conversations is coming, how do you prepare?

Follow

Search Institute Katy Smith

Want to know how to Work with families?

Hack 9

Listen

Just like learning our classrooms, learning in the staff lounge has to look different. Each one of us comes in with different passions, different skill sets and amazing ideas about how best we can continue to serve our students. Finding ways to give teachers a stronger voice and choice in their own learning enhances the student learning and school culture.

Learn

• He Said, She Said…..Can We Talk About PD?
• Personalized PD: Flipping Your Professional Development

Lead

1. What is the most recent PD you attended? How did you apply that learning back in your own context?
2. How can you put aside your personal fears to move forward on a new teaching strategy or skill you have wanted to try?
3. Whoops, uh-oh, how can you use mistakes to enhance your learning as well as your students?

Follow

Brad Gustafson  Jason Bretzmann Todd Schmidt

Want to know how to Have fun and Flip PD?

Hack 10

Listen

Navigating the systems of preschool and K-12 can be daunting for families. Educators on both sides of this transition can make intentional steps towards alignment, ease of transition, and welcoming families between these critical points of their little lives.

Learn

• Building Relationships and Setting the Stage Before K
• Creating Meaningful Transitions from PreK-K
• Bornfreund, L. (2016) Connecting PreK and The Early Grades: Principals on Transitions.

Lead

1. How often do you make time to sit in classrooms that your students are coming from or going to? Can you find one way to make that happen?
2. When was the last time you invited another school, grade level, or preschool to professional development or informal collaboration?
3. Besides the report card and the cumulative file-how do you communicate the specific skills, needs and sparks your students have gain during the year to the next teacher/school?

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Katy Smith Andy Jacks

Want to know more ways to Share ideas and information with families?