“Bob was an amazing presenter with great energy and connection to the participants. Bob’s keynote was an essential step in refreshing our work and love for education!”

Dr. Krislynn Dengler, Superintendent, South Kortright CSD

“Creating Schools of Hope”

The “Age of Accountability” that was ushered in by No Child Left Behind in 2002 carved a divide between educators and the students that need adult connection more than any other group. Students that have traditionally struggled to learn, behaved inappropriately and experienced one or more forms of trauma in their lives. Race To the Top widened and deepened this divide, disconnecting even more students and adults in schools. The pandemic exacerbated this disconnect further for many students and educators. Improving school culture can narrow this divide, improving connections between students and adults and cultivate hope for everyone.

Participants will be able to connect the role school culture plays in student and staff engagement, improving student and staff well-being, and improving student achievement.

The Connected School

Did you know 85% of people dislike their jobs?

Students and staff spend more awake hours in school or doing school activities and work outside of school than any other place. That said, investing in organizational culture can help increase engagement and effectiveness of students and staff. The focus of this workshop is introducing the FISH! Philosophy to staff. The FISH! Philosophy strengthens trust, teamwork, and engagement —the foundation your team needs to excel. People are more engaged and more committed to live what they’ve learned when they’re having a good time and start seeing your work in a fresh and powerful way.

This workshop can be facilitated in two half day sessions or one full day session. It is very interactive and has been known to turn “work” into a three-letter word for participants!

The Fully Connected School

Staff Sessions:

Did you know that in a Gallup survey of full time US workers completed in February 2022, K-12 education employees lead all other categories of full-time employees surveyed experiencing burnout at 44%?

Since 2002, education has become a profession where stressors have increased significantly. Coming out of the pandemic, as schools “return to normal,” faculty, staff, and administrators are experiencing an exacerbated pace of additional stressors. Reengaging faculty, staff, and administration is an important step to reducing employee burnout. This is a series of four 1.5-2-hour sessions where a small cohort of faculty, staff, and administrators focus on applying their work from The Connected School workshop to their daily work. The same group will come together four times throughout the school year for an interactive hands-on experiential workshop focused on one of the four elements of FISH! Giving the cohort time to practice between each session and begin creating grassroots action will help bring a connected, growth-oriented culture to life in the school!

Student Sessions:

Did you know 40% - 60% of high school students in America are chronically disengaged fromschool?

Educators have long known that students who feel connected to school are more engaged in classrooms and school life. This in turn reduces absenteeism and inappropriate behavior, while improving student motivation, academic achievement, and graduation rates. Prior to the onset of the recent pandemic, many schools were seeing the signs of decreasing student connectedness in our schools. In many cases, the pandemic has served to create a wider divide between students and connectedness to their schools. This is a series of four 1.5-hour sessions where a small cohort of students is matched with a small cohort of faculty and staff who have completed The Connected School workshop. The same group will come together four times throughout the school year for an interactive hands-on experiential workshop focused on one of the four elements of FISH! Giving the cohort time to practice between each session and begin creating grassroots action will help bring a connected, growth-oriented culture to life in the school!

Enjoy the Ride! Together we can!

This training for Bus Drivers & monitors begins with an overview of the FISH Philosophy and how to use the four principles of Be There, Make Their Day, Choose Your Attitude, and Play in both your work life and outside of work in your real life to create a fuller life. Then we transition into honing your “superpowers,” including self-awareness, self-reflection, self-discipline, and self-advocacy. When you use these while practicing the FISH Philosophy principles it will help you create an environment or culture that is more positive, make you more productive, and turn your day around as well as others day around whenever it’s necessary. Participants will learn how to use these skills when working with students, peers, and visitors to better manage challenging situations and create a more positive culture on the bus and in the office. This is the key to enjoying work as much as your time off from work! This training would also be beneficial for office staff, teacher aides, cafeteria workers and custodians.

Participants will actively learn and practice:

• Four principles of the FISH Philosophy and learn ways to apply them to their work life through interactive activities (learning by doing).

• Important communication skills

• Superpower skills and resources to make practicing these principles easier at work and home.

• How to apply these skills to their daily work to manage behavior and create a more positive culture.

• Have fun learning and growing.

Embedding the elements of this training into your actions everyday at work will help you “love what you do and do what you love!” And, if you apply it to your life outside of work at the same time, you will begin to turn negative situations to positive, navigate challenges easier, and positively impact those around you. You will become a conduit for change and growth for those you encounter both at work and outside of work, truly making every encounter count!

Customized Workshops

Customized workshops are designed with school leadership and developed to meet specific needs of the faculty and/or staff. Sample topics include:

 → Focused curriculum 

→ Instructional, and/or assessment needs 

→ New employee onboarding

→ Creating a professional learning community

Professional Coaching

Coaching for individuals or teams can maximize personal and professional potential. Participants will complete the Personal Insight Inventory (PII) prior to beginning coaching. The PII is a research-based, on-line survey that provides a customized color-based report explaining the participants unique profile, including:

Behavior Preferences – Your focus and style when you feel most confident.

Expectations – Your deep assumptions about how you and others “should” act.

Needs/Energy – What you need on a “gut level” to sustain and restore your energy and self-confidence.

Knowing your profile, you can adjust your behavior to be more effective as a leader – taking charge of your own behavior and “dialing up” or “dialing down” your style based on your goals and the situation. It is an excellent tool to improve communication and effectiveness. The number of sessions is variable depending on intended outcomes. Coaching is intended for school administrators, teachers, support staff and students. It can be done individually or with small teams.

Strategic Planning

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” Has been attributed to Peter Drucker.

At first blush, we would think these quotes mean culture is more important than strategy. However, if breakfast is the most important meal of the day, strategy and culture must have a symbiotic relationship. This strategic planning model will focus on gathering and reviewing the following data sets:

• Graduation & Dropout Rate

• Student Achievement on State Assessments

• Student Achievement on Common District Assessments

• Students With Disabilities (SWD) Data

  Classification Rate

  Suspension Rate

  Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Placement Rate

• Student Attendance Rate, including Chronic Absenteeism

Building a positive, growth-oriented culture that is aligned with the strategic plan is critical to achieving goals within the plan. In this model, district culture will be assessed, and the data reviewed to develop strategies and priorities to grow and improve school culture.

This workshop changes the paradigm of traditional long-range planning. Participants will:

• Gain an understanding of the process of creating an effective strategic plan

• Begin developing several smaller, connected, manageable plans that will be combined to create the strategic plan

• Establish a process for evaluating progress on the strategic plan

Through this planning process the district will complete an annual culture survey to establish benchmarks for the team to develop specific action steps to improve school culture. One of the focuses of this model is to provide the school district with the tools necessary to use a survey tool each quarter to provide progress monitoring data to evaluate the effectiveness of the action steps in the plan to achieve the cultural goals.

Along with goals and action steps aligned to improve school culture will be goals and action steps focused on improving student achievement. The district planning team will identify tools to provide the team with progress monitoring data of these goals and action steps quarterly as well. Take your strategic planning to a level above the traditional model with a laser-like focus on creating an actionable plan to improve your school district culture.

Building a Collaborative Culture

Accomplishing district goals, implementing school improvement plans, and improving learning for all students require the collaborative efforts of every adult in the building. This workshop is designed to help school leaders harness the power of “giving leadership to get leadership.” We will begin by guiding the team to identify and outline the steps they want to take as they embark on transforming the culture. Each participant will leave with action steps and a timeline to begin this important work. This workshop is intended for Superintendent’s, Leadership Teams/Groups.

District Mission, Vision and Commitment

In the words of Walt Disney, “Your purpose should last 100 years and drive your mission, vision and beliefs in action.” School leaders will clarify their district’s “why,” then continue refining the district’s brand. This is intended as an introduction and is a one-day workshop. Should a district want to conduct a review and revision process of their mission, vision, and commitments, a series of follow up workshops with various stakeholders and even leadership coaching support can be offered.

• Gain an understanding of the difference between Purpose and Mission/Vision

• Gain an understanding of the significance of your purpose toward achieving your mission-vision-commitments

School Board and Leadership Team Retreats

Every team needs time away from the busyness of the office in order to think deeply and work together to lead the district to the next level. These retreats are developed through the collaborative efforts of the Superintendent and/or the School Board President. Members of the team will have the opportunity to respond to a survey to help further refine and customize the agenda and intended outcomes of the retreat.

Possible Topics:

• Leading a Connected School

• School Improvement Planning

• Custom Retreat: designed with district leaders to meet district needs