The Day @AngelaMaiers helped @NavasotaISD and @NavasotaInt, Be Brave

Before writing this post I really had to sit back and digest what took place yesterday.

But first let me start with a little backstory.  I was hired for my new position back in March.  Soon after getting hired, the discussion began about a keynote for Navasota ISD's annual Symposium (it's a 2 and 1/2 day conference put on by Navasota Teachers for Navasota Teachers).  They wanted someone who would inspire and challenge all at the same time.  They wanted Angela Maiers.

When I was hired I knew I wanted Angela working with my school as well.  Why?  Because I "met" Angela about a year ago.  She completely changed the way I viewed myself and my skill set.  She cut to my heart and changed the direction of so many things in my career and over the past year has become a really good friend of mine.

So when the conversation of Angela came up no one knew what to do or how to contact her, so I reached out and begged her to come.  Luckily, she was already going to be in Texas that week, so the planning began.

Angela started the day by giving her keynote.  She called it "Be Brave".  And what a challenge that was!  The message was just the message I needed to hear, my team needed to hear, and my district needed to hear. A few of my favorite moments from the talk were....

"Humility was the number one attribute, as designated by 4-14 yr olds, of the quality of a leader" @AngelaMaiers #NavasotaInt
— Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd) August 18, 2014

"When you as a leader have more than those you lead, you have a responsibility to give more than is necessary" @AngelaMaiers #NavasotaInt
— Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd) August 18, 2014

"The riskiest thing we can do as leaders, learners, and citizens is choose the safe route" @AngelaMaiers #NavasotaInt
— Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd) August 18, 2014

"When you're doing brave work it disturbs those who are comfortable. Don't stop being brave" @AngelaMaiers #navasotaint
— Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd) August 18, 2014

"It isn't about me being great. It's about me using what's great about me to get others to be great" @AngelaMaiers #navasotaint
— Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd) August 18, 2014

"School has to be the reason for genius showing up. Not the reason for it to be hidden" @AngelaMaiers #navasotaint
— Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd) August 18, 2014

There are so many other little "nuggets of wisdom" that I could add in here, but that's just a taste.

After the keynote Angela came over with me to tour Navasota Intermediate.  Why? Because you see, Angela has adopted Navasota Intermediate this year.  We are going to be her case study, of the first school in the United States,. to be a #YouMatter school from day one.

As we walked the halls, visited the classrooms, met the team, it was overwhelming.  I loved Angela's comment of "I feel like I've walked into the school I've always dreamed would exist"  That was such a compliment.

I loved too that two of my admin team (Terry Garrett and Aaron Marvel) got to sit down with Angela and share a little of their story of what we're trying to create down here.

After the tour we enjoyed a quick lunch together, and then Angela headed over to the High School to lead an hour long session with NISD teachers about more implementation ideas.

Then the best part came.  From 2-4pm Angela got to work with just my campus (because she's adopted us).

That two hours was so emotionally powerful and overwhelming.  We started the two hours with an idea my admin team had cooked up with Angela.  We got bags from GoNoodle, and myself, plus my 3 admin, wrote a special message from each of us on the bags to the person who would be receiving that bag.  We individualized every single one.  Then inside the bag we put goodies with little sayings on it.  For example we put a bag of Funyins and said "Enjoy your Fun-youngins", and we put a pen that said "Leave your mark" and things like that.

Right away we had some tears flowing.  It's amazing what a personalized message and some special treats will do.  Then Angela lead us in several exercises and ideas.  The most powerful?  We had to get into our teams and we had to sit there while our team shared everything they loved about us.  That was tough.  It was tough for me, as an adult, to sit there and hear nice things said about me by my team.  It took every ounce of self control not to cry the entire time.  It's amazing how just a few kind words of someone noticing something about you changes everything.  In that moment, we completed our transformation from the staff of Navasota Intermediate, and into a family.

I'm not sure Angela will ever truly understand the impact she left on us.  It will take me quite a while to fully comprehend.  But we're not the same, and we're better for it.  Our ideas our flowing!  We know opposition will come.  We know the tough days will come.  Because like Angela said, when you challenge the status quo and try something different, it upsets those who are comfortable.  But like she also reminded us, Good is the enemy of great.  We must be more than just good enough.  There are so many little things that we plan to implement this year that will make sure every single person that leaves our campus knowing they matter, they have worth, and they are valued.

At Navasota Intermediate, You're a Superhero

The @NavasotaISD Community Walk

This past Saturday, I got to take part in my first every community walk!

Last year Navasota ISD did it for the first time, so this was their second year of trying this out.

What happens on a community walk?  Well staff members from each campus meet at the Administration building at 10am on a Saturday morning.  Each campus stuffed about 120 bags each, full of district information, welcome notes, whatever we wanted!  Then we split up and each campus went and delivered the bags to the homes of families of students who would be attending our respective schools this upcoming year.

It was kind of like a "Welcome to the new School Year" thing.  We had about 22 people representing our campus.  We split up into about 5 groups and headed out to greet our student families!

All the NISD Employees

It ended up being an incredibly rewarding experience.  Not only from my group, but from the stories I heard from the other groups from Navasota Intermediate as well.  Plus it was another great bonding moment for us as a staff.

It was great to greet parents and guardians at their homes.  To visit some of the apartment complexes.  To just really not only see where our students were coming from, but to bring ourselves to them.

I had never taken part in anything like this, and I can't claim credit to the idea at all.  This was all thought up by the incredible upper administration at NISD.

But it was something that I can't wait to continue year after year.  In fact, even walking through the community, we've already all thought of more ideas and ways to reach out and meet our parents where they are instead of always asking them to come to the school.

Sometimes, as educators, we forget how important it is to visit a child's home. To see where they come from.  To show them we care about them enough to give of our own time, on a Saturday, to visit them.  I also loved that each of the Navasota Intermediate bags carried a "You Matter" card too.

I can't express enough how proud I am to be a part of Navasota ISD, and a part of Navasota Intermediate.  My teachers showed up in full force, ready to tackle the day, and they did.  Their passion and dedication is incredibly moving and every moment I reminded of how special this group is.

Thursday is Meet the Teacher at our campus, and I can't wait to meet all our kiddos!

The Power of Two Words: You Matter

This year, at my new campus, we're becoming a #YouMatter school.  Every single part of our school is going to really focus on reminding every student, parent, and warm body that enters our building that they matter.  We want you to leave feeling more loved then when you came in.

One way hat we're doing that, that I'm really excited about, is our You Matter Cards.  In our front office, every visitor will recieve a You Matter card before they leave.  Why?  To encourage them to continue the message as they leave our walls.

Today, I had my first "experience" with this message.  After a meeting with a new student's parents, I gave them a card.  I told them.... "One thing we're going to focus on this year is making sure that your son knows just how amazing and special he is to every person here on campus.  I would love to give you this card and encourage you to give it to someone else who means something to you.  Help us continue this message througout our community".

The parents stared at me in shock.  For a split second they didn't understand what was happening.  And then....it clicked.  They got it.  They smiled huge and said they would love to take a card and spread the message.  I almost started crying right there on the spot.  Why?  It was a moment where it was clear they hadn't been in a school like ours.  A moment where they were "seen".  Where they were noticed.

It's those special moments, those moments when you impact a soul, that you know you're doing the right thing.  I can't wait to see the continued affect our You Matter cards have, not only on this community, but on the world at large.  Because, why dream small?  Let us all take a small moment of every day to remind someone that they matter, that we see them, that we're happy they woke up this morning, and that their life has worth.

Business/Community Open House at @NavasotaInt

Last week I wrote this post about planning our first ever "Business/Community Open House" at the school I'm now Principal of, Navasota Intermediate.  Well yesterday was the day!

We passed out over 150 postcards to local businesses inviting them to come walk the halls of our school and hear our vision for a new school year.  I didn't know if anyone would show up.  I was nervous.  This was kind of like my "first big thing" as a principal and I really wanted it to succeed.  I so believe in the power of bringing every stakeholder together to reach a child.  But I also know Rome wasn't built in a day.  I also know that when you come into a community that has never been asked to be a part of a child's education (without some monetary expectation) that sometimes it takes a little time.  But I also believe in the impossible.

We held our Open House from 1-4pm yesterday.  My wonderful two office ladies, Rachel and Rosalia (with a little help from a couple of our amazing teachers), set up a beautiful welcome table (decked out in Superhero stuff, cause that's our theme this year).  Rachel brought her fine china, we had cheese, crackers, cookies, grapes, and bottled water.   It looked GREAT!

And right on time at 1pm, the steady stream of community members began.  We had over 20 guests during the 3 hour period.  People from the local newspaper, fire department, police squad, local business owners, interested parents, and even the City Manager and City Mayor!!!  And what I love about the district I work in?  We had almost every single upper administrator stop by and tour as well.

My favorite part of the experience?  The conversations.  As I, my instructional coach Aaron, and my Assistant Principal Terry, walked people down the halls, it's the conversations that most touched my heart.

The citizens were elated.  They were excited to tour a school most had never seen.  But even more so, they were honored to be asked to come onto our campus.  And the best?  They all want to come back!

We shared our classrooms, our new makerspace, our new science lab, our teacher PLC room, the library, and so much more.  We shared our vision with teaching in the PBL model, and that's what got them most excited.  They loved the ideas.  Especially when we asked the business owners to send our kiddos problems they were having at their businesses and let our KIDS fix them!  There's a local business that designs office chairs that is going to send a designer to our campus and have our kids design their next chair.  How cool is that???

I said before in my other post, this was a missing piece.  We had about 20 business/community members show up.  That was AMAZING!  But there's still lots more I'd love to reach, and that will take time.  But man we are off to a great start!  The kids can't get here fast enough!

Next stop?  Meet the Teacher!

A Missing Piece

As a new principal, one of the things I really wanted to focus on, was involving the entire community in helping our campus succeed.

One of the ideas that I had was to have a Business/Community Open House before school started.  One where we invite the business owners in town to come tour the campus, hear our vision, see what we have in store, and figure out a way for us to work together!

We planned the date (this upcoming Tuesday) and got the ball rolling.  I had postcards made and I split them between my office staff and asked the office staff (including myself) to hand deliver them to businesses inviting them to our open house.

What happened next was eye opening.  As my assistant Principal (Terry Garrett) and I visited businesses downtown, the experience was unexpected.  The business owners were shocked.  They didn't know why we were inviting them.  They had never even been asked to be a part of the education system.  And some didn't even know where the Intermediate School was located.  But most of all, they were interested.  They WANTED to come.  They WANTED to be a part.  They were just waiting for an invitation.

The conversations turned to excitement.  The conversations turned to interest.  Most of all, the conversations started.

Too many times, we as educators, forget to involve ALL stakeholders in our journey.  Sometimes people need an invitation.  They need to know they're wanted.

At Navasota Intermediate, we're going to bring everyone in.  We're going to work with this entire community to do what's best for these kids.

Will many business owners show up to our Business/Community Open House on Tuesday?  Who knows.  But I know one thing, the conversation has begun, and the walls are beginning to fall down.

When You Believe

The topic of this post has been on my mind for a while, but I think I can finally put it into words.  Or at least attempt to!

I believe in dreaming big.  I believe in what others may think is "impossible".

Last night I was invited to be a part of a #USedchat group doing a Google Hangout to talk about "change".  It was an honor to even be asked but it was also just great conversation.  I left that conversation feeling even more excited about the path I've chosen to take.

As I jump into this new role, and as I enter a district who is struggling, I've continually heard people tell me...

- They're so low, you don't need that your first year!
- Are you sure you're ready for this?
- I hope you have 5 years of your life ready becuase that's how long it's going to take to do anything!
- Why would you want to jump into that mess?
- You're not ready for this.
and my "favorite"??
- Don't try to do that, those kids can't handle it.

I hear the words come out of their mouths.  I see the looks on their faces.  But their concern and their statements don't make sense to me.

I have seen the lowest kids rise about the "smartest".  I have seen the downtrodden, find their hearts again.  Why?  Becasue someone believed in them.  Because someone told them they could.  Because someone set high expectations.

I think of two of my friends.  I think of my friend Ron Clark, and how his passion for believing in and working with kids has changed the lives of some of the most challenging kids.  I remember him telling me just a few weeks ago, "Todd, what you're getting into is so exciting.  Imagine the change that you can bring about."  And that's exactly right.  Why would I want to be anywhere else?  I want to be where there is a need, like in Navasota.

Then I think about the conversation I had with my good friend Angela Maiers, just last night.  I must say though, you can NOT talk to Angela Maiers, and not leave changed.  She just has that effect every single time I talk to her.  Angela and I both have the same mindset with people.  Let them know that they matter.  Let them know that you care.  Let them know that they have a voice.  And just watch how much it changes things.

The road in front of me is not going to be an easy one.  I know that.  But as a man of faith, I know that God has placed me here for a reason.  I have seen piece after piece fall perfectly into place as I've made my transition over to Navasota.  I've watched the perfect team fall together.  I've seen passions reignited in teachers, admin, and parents alike.  I've seen a rumbling within the community begin to take hold.  And it's exciting.  It's invigorating.

We're going to do someting extraordinary down here in Navastoa, Texas.  Why?  Because I believe.  I believe in the power that lies within a dedicated group who are passionatly concerned with reaching every child's heart.  I believe in hard work.  I believe in what same claim as the "impossible".  Because you see, in my personal dictionary, the word impossible doesn't exist.

When a PLN "Circles the Wagons"

As the pieces have fallen together over at Navasota Intermediate, something interesting has happened.

Let me start by giving you a little background.  Navasota Intermediate is being "reconstituted".  Essentially that means that when they hired me as the new Principal, I had to come in and hire a new staff.  I did keep about 4 of the previous staff, but because of where things had ended up the district was looking for a "fresh start".

I accepted the position knowing that I had no experience as a School Administrator, but strangely enough I wasn't intimidated.

And the last two months have proven to me why I wasn't intimidated.  Over the last two years I've built a PLN (personal learning network).  It's people that I met online (through Twitter) who I vent to, learn from, grow with, etc.

After accepting the position and beginning to rebuild the campus, something happened.  What happened was my PLN began to "circle the wagons".  I can't even begin to express the emotional overwhelmingness over the last two months of receiving texts, phone calls, Voxer messages, tweets, Facebook messages, and more.  People were genuinely excited for me and the future of that campus.  But so much more than that, they wanted to help, however they could.  ISTE was a huge eye opener for me this year as person after person came up to me offering help.

Crazily enough, what has begun to happen is that Navasota Intermediate is quickly becoming an example of what can happen when you build a "PLN school".  It's so much humbling to watch different people I admire or respect offer their time and resources to help us grow and become the best we can be for these kids.  Even education companies have come onboard to help us in our mission.

I have a few educators on my staff who understand the power of social media, but more and more are learning.  I sit in an airport right now, on my way to Podstock in Kansas, and I can't even truly comprehend what is happening or what is coming for Navasota.

Every day I show up to work this summer brimming with ideas.  Then I come in contact with one of my new teachers, or a group of new employees, or my admin team, and I am just filled with so much joy and pride.  I am honored to work along side these people we've selected for Navasota Intermediate.  I believe strongly that we can build a school that changes things.  Build a school where every student is valued, where every child finds their version of success, and where learning happens.  I know there are amazing schools out there, but it's so exciting to be building one, pretty much from scratch, and watching my PLN "circle the wagons" to help.

The world better watch out, Navasota Intermediate (with the help of my PLN) is about to make some waves.