Your work matters.

You walk into “that” room in your house (you know most of us have one) - the room where items are piled up because you don’t know where they go in your home. Items that have been gifted to you, handed down, or purchased without a real intention to use them. Maybe they are the drinking glasses you just HAD to have on your wedding registry. Not that I have a set of those collecting dust in my house… And you know it’s time to ditch the clutter, but it is so overwhelming, you walk away. And the stuff in that room just continues to grow.

This is normally where the TV show host shows up and tells you that they are here to help you with your clutter. In the 2003 reality show, Clean Sweep, homeowners would get help with “that” room in their house. The hosts would help them organize items into three piles: Keep, Sell, Trash. Guess which pile was always the largest? That’s right, the keep pile. The hosts would have to help determine what could really be let go.

​Peter DeWitt likens this to what we do in education: “Have you ever watched one of those television shows on hoarding and judged the person on the screen? It can be hard to understand how they find so much value in things they rarely or never use. However, we educators then go into our schools and have a list of tasks that we must get done and have meeting after meeting on the next initiative our school district is about to adopt. When we do this, we too are showing signs of accumulating too much..“ (2022)

Leaders need to let go of the things that aren’t serving us anymore. By adding initiatives, adding programs, adding (insert blank) and never letting go of anything, we are creating “that” room in our educational spaces. And it’s not working.

So what can we do when it feels like everything is important? Declutter and then FOCUS. I have a resource that can help: the Keep, Trash, Recycle protocol. This protocol helps you lead a team through the hard work of decluttering “that” room. And if you do it well, your keep pile will help you focus. What goes in each pile? Systems and processes, programs, initiatives and other “things” we do or use in our work. Assess each of these things and put them in the appropriate pile:

• Keep: Working well, as-is
• Trash: Not working, not needed
• Recycle: Not working, needs revision ​​

After using this protocol with your team(s), narrow down your focus.

1. How can you support what is going well in your keep pile? How will you help new team members use what is in your keep pile?
2. What is ONE goal to work on from your revision pile? What will you layer on after that? (See last month’s newsletter for layers of wins)
3. How will you communicate about the items going in the trash?

And then KEEP DOING THIS. Inevitably, we will need to do Spring Cleaning again and again. Reflecting on what no longer serves us keeps us clearly focused on our goals. Just because something new or innovative has entered the educational space does not mean it is exactly what you need. Be a critical consumer on behalf of your team and make sure it belongs in your keep pile.

Leadership Moves:

1. Declutter using the Keep Trash Recycle Protocol​
2. Narrow your focus
3. Communicate a clear plan
4. Ignore the shiny new things unless it belongs in the keep pile

What does this mean for me?

You’ve created “that” room by holding onto too much. It’s time to listen to Elsa and let some things go to make space for change. Decluttering our educational focus allows us to impact literacy outcomes.

Where have we been?

April was a slower month. My family celebrated three birthdays in a row and enjoyed Spring Break at the beach. It was a good reminder that rest is productive. In fact, it is what inspired this month’s newsletter topic - because when our life is full, when our life is non-stop, we leave room for nothing else. It’s why great ideas come to us in the shower - because we have made space for our brains to think.

How are you incorporating rest into your work? When do you reflect and make space for creativity?
Read more here.

Where are we going?

Let's work together

We just finished a curriculum audit project for a client using the Curriculum Evaluation Guidelines published by The Reading League. When we conduct a curriculum audit with this tool, we do more than just read your written curriculum. We visit, observe instruction and meet with staff in focus groups to determine the context in which curriculum is implemented. We dig deeper to better understand the story behind the line “we use ______ curriculum for literacy.” There is more to it than that and your context matters.

Here is what our client had to say:

Are you clear on how your literacy instruction aligns to evidence-based practices? If not, let’s find out if a curriculum audit would help you determine how to take action to improve literacy outcomes. Reply to this email to grab a spot on my calendar in June!