WEBVTT

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[Music]

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Brenda Wynder: My
name is Brenda Wynder.

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I am the principal at Lake
Forest North Elementary.

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I'm beginning my sixth
year here at Lake Forest.

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When I came to Lake Forest,
I was the fifth principal

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to be placed here in six years,
and so we had a lot of work

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that needed to be done.

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The school's main focus
was on fluency and phonics,

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with minimal input or work
on reading comprehension.

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I knew that change
had to be a process

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and not a one-time event.

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So I began by working
with the master schedule

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and putting the school on a
block schedule by grade level

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so that we would know who
was teaching what, when,

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and how long, which would
then give us the opportunity

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to do the walk-throughs and
the monitoring that we needed

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to gather information to
figure out where everyone was.

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Because an important part
of staff development is

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to give teachers
exactly what they need

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so that it will be useful.

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Teachers receive the changes
with the new staff development

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as it would be anywhere.

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Some people are ready to go and
elated to have it--jump onboard.

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Some people are almost
there, and they watch

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to see what's happening
before they make their choice.

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And then some people just
flat-out won't receive it.

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So I would not spend all of my
time with the people who did not

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and leave the people who
were receiving the change

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just waiting.

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So we did one year observing.

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Second year, we gave you
some tools to work with.

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And then the third year,
there was now going

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to be the requirement--or
the accountability piece--of,

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we would still be providing
for staff development,

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but there was now a goal,
or a bar set in place,

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for you of an expectation.

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And so I created what we
called "data meetings,"

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and those data meetings happened
with the teacher and myself.

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We sat down, we looked at the
data sheet--who you're getting

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from the start--and then we
discussed and we set goals

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where those children
needed to be individually

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at the end of the school year.

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>>Ed Cutler: My name is Ed
Cutler, elementary supervisor

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for the district, and we are

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in Lake Forest School
District, in Felton, Delaware.

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Over the last three years,

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we've seen at North
Elementary School a rapid change

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in the culture.

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That, I believe, is directly
attributed to the principal.

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She has a single-minded focus,
and that's student achievement

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through staff development.

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And this is also through
her actual involvement,

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making sure that the
teachers get the best support

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that they can and
that they perform.

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And she monitors that and
provides direct feedback.

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But Brenda's idea
is real simple:

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You do what you say
you're going to do,

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and if you make a mistake,
we work to improve it.

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>>Wynder: The planning,

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the collaboration just
really helped us all be going

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in the same direction.

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But I can't leave out the third
part, which is the walk-through.

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The administration, the
assistant principal, myself,

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and the literacy coach:
We are in the halls;

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we are in the classrooms;
we are monitoring;

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we're giving back notes on
what we have seen--making sure

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that they understand this is not
just something we are asking you

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to do, but we are monitoring it.

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>>Cutler: The role
of the principal

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in the Reading Comprehension
Program is critical.

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I believe that you need
to be in the classrooms.

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You need to let the
teachers know what it is

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that you are going to come
in to observe, to see.

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But then when you're in there,

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you need to pay attention
to the students.

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When you see students learn, you
need to let the teachers know.

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You need to talk
to the youngsters

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and ask them what
they're learning and why.

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We need to keep our
communication

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with our principals and
with our teachers constant.

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We are in the buildings: myself
as elementary supervisor,

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all the other board
support people come in.

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We talk to the people; we attend
their articulation meetings;

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we attend all other meetings,
school improvement meetings.

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So support is number one.

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>>Wynder: It's time now
that administrators,

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instructional leaders learn we
really have to be a resource.

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We can't be "I need you to go
do that," but we have to be

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"Let's work on that together."

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I think the more teachers
see that, it kind of pulls

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out of them the willingness
to try to work towards it.

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And I tell them every
year, "This is going

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to be your hardest year yet.

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We are going to work harder
than we did last year."

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But notice I say
"we"--not "you," not "I,"

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but "we"--and I try
to model that.

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[Music]