A day in the life of Bobby Smith was quite the experience. Bobby and I go way back. He was my social studies teacher in 6th grade and my basketball coach in junior high. We have stayed in touch over the years, so when I began working at Fayetteville High School in 2017 – where Bobby was an assistant principal – I was thrilled that our paths crossed again. To this day when I see him in the hallway he calls me “Britt Doggy Dog” and it always makes me laugh.

When Bobby emailed me and asked if I would like to shadow him for a day to see what a day in the life of an administrator was like I jumped at the opportunity. The administration team had a luncheon to attend with the central office, so the assistant principals got to have a shadow for the day. The shadows would also do all of the lunch duties while they were out. Thank goodness nothing happened during that hour, I am still not sure what I would have done or how I would have handled an emergency. I get to save that experience for another day.

After shadowing Bobby I knew that I had to jot down my thoughts from the day. I am currently doing my internship for my administration license. That means I had to complete 110 hours this past semester shadowing an elementary principal. This spring I will be shadowing my principal at Fayetteville High School. A day in the life of Bobby Smith was nothing like my 110 hours in the elementary school. Not because of the age differences, but because it was authentic. My internship hours were spent doing specific projects and shadowing at principals meeting. I never had the opportunity to just follow Mrs. Ryan (my advisor) for the day.

Nothing about my day with Bobby was scripted. He had things he wanted to show me, but he was still an administrator at work. When things came up, he had to address them right then. I had several “ah-ha” moments that I will forever be grateful for.

100 Fist Bumps

Bobby has a rule: 100 fist bumps each day. We began the morning walking the hallways and greeting students. I was blown away by the number of students he personally knew by name. Way more than I knew. So that quickly shattered the argument that when you get into administration you lose touch with students. On the contrary, he had a much broader scope of influence with students than I do.

I noticed he gave all the kids he walked past a fist bump. Later he explained that he tries to give 100 students a fist bump each day. Doing this is much quicker than a handshake, and is therefore feasible to reach 100 in a day. He said it’s amazing the impact a “Hey bud how are you doing today?” with a fist bump can have on a kid. He listened to the students’ responses, but surprisingly never really broke his stride. He had perfected this maneuver.

Flexible Organization

Being flexible, I realized, is kinda nonnegotiable for administrators. Bobby had his to do list for the day. When we got to his office after morning duty he showed me the list. There were 4 items on it. I was confident we would be finished with the list by 10 (one hour later).

When the dismissal bell rang at the end of the day we had completed 2 of the items. Within the first 30 minutes of being in his office three students, two teachers, and the director of transportation came by his office. Next thing I knew it was time for lunch duty.

I am definitely a to do list type of person. Lists have always helped keep me organized and prioritize the day. That is exactly what Bobby had done. He knew what he absolutely had to do that day (the two items we accomplished) and the other two were “lets see if we have time” category. Never once did he look flustered when someone came in needing to talk. He always took the time to talk with each person and hear them out. Administrators have to have a balance between flexibility and organization that is nearly impossible to find, but somehow each of them does.

Making Time for Yourself

As the day was wrapping up Bobby told me about his 4:30 CrossFit class that he was going to. He stopped and turned to look at me and said with all sincerity, “Britt, this job can consume you. Don’t let it.” We talked about the need for family time and hobbies. Self-care will make the difference between a good leader and a great leader. He said that he cannot come and give the staff and students 100% if he has not taken care of himself first.

Laugh

I happened to be walking across campus when I saw four of the assistant principals coming back from the luncheon. As they walked up they actually reminded me of a group of high school boys: laughing and goofing off before they crossed the gate into the building. I had to stop and appreciate how these administrators, who deal with difficult issues all day and have to be the strict disciplinarians and role models for high school students, were able to leave their responsibilities at work and be care free friends enjoying a lunch together.

Working in education can be one of the most rewarding careers, as well as one of the hardest. There are days that I have come home and cried to my husband. What some of my students are dealing with breaks my heart and it can almost be too much to bear. And I only see a fraction of what is going on; these men see so much more. It is essential to have a support group that you can lean on when times are rough and that remind you why you get up for work every day.

I am so thankful for my day in the life of Bobby Smith. I have always looked up to him and respected him since I was a little kid. Having phenomenal leaders around to help guide me on my journey to growing as an educational leader will make all the difference in my effectiveness as an administrator.

As the new year approaches I decided to do something I read about recently. I am going to share my five “moonshots”. I had never heard this term before before reading “Design Thinking for School Leaders” by Alyssa Gallagher. “Moonshot” was coined by Google to describe their most innovative projects. These ideas are not meant to address small problems by coming up with easy and safe solutions. Moonshots address huge problems by proposing radical solutions that will gain more than 10 times the improvement.

In education, change can be scary. I am in my 7th year of teaching and I have seen change every year, but not significant change. This constant state of flux is brought on because the issues in education are being solved with small solutions. Educators see a problem that needs to be addressed, but they don’t want to change too much at once. So they implement 10% changes here and 10% changes the next year, and so on and so forth. This never leads to true and lasting improvements, because by the time the final product is in place new leadership is in place, or people have lost their commitment to the original vision.

Teachers are being asked every day to do the impossible. Individualize instruction for all students in the class no matter their level. Give one on one attention to all 30+ students each class period. Provide detailed feedback on assessments, and do so in a timely manner (the next day or two). Be understanding of the child who has a rough home life and know that school is not his top priority, but also make sure that he scores proficient on the end of year exam. Come to work every day with a smile on your face because your students depend on you. The list goes on and on.

Since we are asked to do the impossible, why not dream? Dream of all the wonderful things that public schools could be. Dream of all of the ways you would reach the unreachable students. Dream of all the ways you can prepare students for post-secondary education or career readiness. So these are my dreams, or moonshots, for my school district.

1. A restorative justice system that eliminates suspensions.

2. A common time for teachers to meet with each of the content teams they are a part of.

3. Regular access to a laptop and internet for every child.

4. A maximum class size of 24 students.

5. Increase the graduation rate of our minority students to match that of the rest of the school.

These are my dreams/moonshots for my school district. I look at this list and my first thought is that there is no way that most of these can, or will, happen. But let’s dream about what school would be like if they did. If we allow ourselves to dream, we begin to dream up innovative solutions. So why not try?

Do you have that person that you can vent to? When something happens in your life, and you don’t necessarily want to discuss it, but you just need to vent? Well for me that person is my husband. He has to listen to me go off on long rants about education. He kindly listens and nods his head. Every once in a while he will ask for clarification about an unfamiliar acronym, or which of the three people named Katie I am referring to. One of my common go to conversations is math in America. I am in my seventh year of teaching math and have gotten to teach 8 different courses in 7th-12th grade mathematics. I have worked with the best and brightest as well as the kids that just getting them to pick up a pencil is a struggle.

So when my husband came across the article Why are Americans so bad at math by Mike Colagrossi he was excited to pass it along. The author goes through and outlines three major points about math in America.

1. Americans are consistently scoring lower than their international peers.
2. The way America teach’s math is actually the worst way to teach math.
3. He finishes his paper by trying to make sense of the disconnect between some of the most brilliant minds and the lack of success in math across the board in America.

Mr. Colagrossi states that they most common way to teach math in America is the use of rote memorization. According to Colagrossi, math should not be viewed as steps to memorize, but rather a language that needs to be studied and understood. He describes math as “a way to speak and manipulate the world in a logic and reason-based system…” I most definitely agree with him on this point. I have the pleasure of working with students who have just recently entered the country. Since math is a universal language it is easier for me to teach students with a variety of native languages than for teachers in other content areas. Language barriers are weaker in math since math is a common ground for all people.

So many of the topics that Colagrossi brings up are things I have spoken about with my husband. There is definitely an issue with how math is taught in American school systems. As I was reading this article I was agreeing with everything he said. Yet, when I got to the end and really began processing what I had read, I found myself getting upset. Extremely upset.

My initial take away from the article was that the blame was solely on the teachers when that is not the case. I completely agree that we need to change how we teach math. Approaching mathematics as a language is crucial to the success of students. But there is so much more at play for how math is taught in the classroom. I believe before you start looking at the points Colagrossi brings up it is important to take a step back and look at a broader scope of education in America.

Standards

Since I live in Arkansas, and have been educated and taught here my whole life, I will discuss the Arkansas Common Core State Standards in my response. In Algebra 1 there are 23 major clusters and a total of 49 standards. In Algebra 2 there are 29 major clusters and 59 standards. In Geometry there are 16 major clusters and 39 standards. These standards are not topics that can be taught in a few days. To truly become proficient in them it takes weeks of teaching, assessing, reteaching, and reassessing.

Any teacher knows that it is not practical to believe that every child will become proficient on every standard by the end of the course. Typically, teachers struggle to get through all of the standards by the end of the school year. This means that teachers have to understand that they won’t have enough time to teach all of the content, and have to decide as a PLC which standards can be pushed to the end of the year.

In my seven years of teaching it has always been the statistics and data unit that we do not reach. The problem with that is students get all the way to their graduation and have never had statistics and data in a math class. An approach to help combat this is to identify essential standards per content level that every child must become proficient in by the end of the school year. Identifying 3-5 will keep it manageable and realistic for all students.

State Wide Exams

In Arkansas we are also required to give the ACT Aspire to all students 3rd-10th grade. What is covered on the test does not necessarily match up with these standards. Our schools are rated and judged based on student performance on these “non-high stake”, high stake tests. As an educator I educate my students in a way that will teach them a deeper understanding of the why and how behind mathematics. I hate to admit this, but at the end of the day I ALSO have to prepare my students to do well on their test. I am held accountable for teaching ALL of the Algebra 1 standards and preparing students for their next class.

Best teaching practices today would look like students being asked to problem solve, taking their time, and working collaboratively. But at the end of the school year we ask students to solve 45 questions in 60 minutes, work alone, and answer questions that are formatted completely differently than they will ever see again. These two approaches do not line up and it does not make sense why we assess our students understanding when it does not represent the classroom or real life.

Education in America

Some days I have to use all of my willpower to not break down. I feel that our system has failed so many students. There is enough data to show that if you hold a child back due to lack of proficiency on grade level material, there could be terrible social and emotional consequences for the child. So we have a choice; pass students on to the next grade even though they are not ready or hold them back to gain the academic knowledge needed and face other consequences down the road. Typically, you will see children getting passed from one grade to the next even if they are not ready.  Math is a language so if you are missing the foundations of the language you cannot progress. Students get to 9th grade and yet test on a 4th grade math level.

As much as I agree with Mr. Colagrossi and his assessment of the way math is being taught in America, I think you cannot put more on the shoulders of the teachers without a huge educational shift to support student learning. Common Core Standards are not going to change our entire educational system. Opening more charter schools only supports the privileged students who can go; this is also not the answer to our problem. Focusing on deeper understanding on a few standards versus touching on several topics, revising the assessment of students understanding, and providing training for teachers on the language of math are just a few of my suggestions.

I have recently become obsessed with Canva. It is one of my top tools when creating new graphics for the classroom or parents. Here is a flyer I made for tips on identifying English Language Learners for Gifted and Talented.