Leading Schools and Establishing Culture with Dr. Don Parker

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

students, school, teachers, leaders, parker, building, social emotional learning, relationships, educators, research, work, order, told, principal, program, teaching, chapter, administrator, climate, life

SPEAKERS

Joi Patterson, Don Parker, Amy Vujaklija

Don Parker: 00:03

You really have to build bridges with students, you have to make those connections, you have to build the bridge between their current situation to how they can be successful in school and successful in life.

Amy Vujaklija: 00:15

Welcome to our podcast teaching and leading with Dr. Amy and Dr. Joi. I am Dr. Amy Vujaklija, Director of educator preparation.

Joi Patterson: 00:26

And I am Dr. Joi Patterson, Chief Diversity Officer. Our podcast addresses issues through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion, along with solutions for us to grow as educators.

Amy Vujaklija: 00:41

So join us on our journey to become better teachers and leaders. So let's get into it.

Joi Patterson: 00:50

Good morning, Dr. Amy.

Amy Vujaklija: 00:52

Good morning, Dr. Joi. How are you?

Joi Patterson: 00:55

I'm wonderful. And I'm excited about our guests today. I've had the opportunity to meet this gentleman on three separate occasions. And it's been amazing all the way through. I'm excited about his energy, his background and everything that he has to share. And I can't wait for our audience to hear everything. So I'll let you take over from here, Amy? Certainly.

Amy Vujaklija: 01:21

Yeah, I like his focus. He's actually published a book. So Dr. Don Parker is a published author. And we're going to be focusing on not just his first book, but the one that is going to be released in October. And in his first book, he talked a lot about building relationships and the mental health. And in his next book, he's talking about leaders and equity. So I'm curious, like, where's the intersection? And I think that teachers, administrators, and students and our college professors, we can all take away something from this.

Joi Patterson: 02:10

I agree. And I think when you read the information, even though it's centered around school leaders, I think is very broad who school leaders are right. And then in addition, I took away something from this. You know, I see there's a huge message in here for all leaders, not necessarily just school leaders. So this is this was a dynamic read. And he is a dynamic person, and I'm looking forward to what he has to share with our listeners.

Amy Vujaklija: 02:43

But let me introduce Dr. Don Parker, who is a highly sought after speaker and professional development provider. He specializes in supporting teachers to build trusting relationships with students in improving the culture and climate of schools to optimize staff and students experience. Dr. Parker is a former principal and served at Posen school in Posen, Illinois, where he improved the school climate, staff collaboration, parent engagement and student achievement. Previous to that he was the principal of Lincoln Avenue School, a K eight school in Dalton, Illinois, where he improved the culture implemented a Resilience Program manage the implementation of restorative justice, and increased attendance and student achievement. And aside now, when student attendance is down, achievement is down. They've got to be there. Dr. Parker has been an educator since 1997. With a background as a teacher, Dean of Students, Assistant Principal of Student Life assistant principal for curriculum and instruction, and assistant principal for activities and athletics. Dr. Parker has also been an adjunct professor and instructed graduate courses to students seeking their master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction at National Louis University in Bolingbrook. His diverse background and education has provided him with the knowledge of how to best apply evidence based methods and student interventions to improve student behavior and increase student achievement. And I'm, what I'm really excited about is talking to Dr. Parker about his strong belief in creating a school climate where everyone is striving for excellence. So, welcome to our podcast. Dr. Parker.

Joi Patterson: 04:53

Welcome back. Dr. Don.

Don Parker: 04:55

Your morning. Good morning. Good morning.

Joi Patterson: 04:57

How are you! good to see you?

Don Parker: 04:59

It's good very senior to Happy Monday, happy

Joi Patterson: 05:02

Monday. So I have I have a lot of chitchat for you before we get into the real stuff, because in reading going over your bio, we saw a lot of our friends pop up in places that you've been, you know, you know, I didn't notice that something was missing from your bio.

Don Parker: 05:20

Really, what was that?

Joi Patterson: 05:21

You know, I know that you are part of the governor State University family. I but I didn't see that you were teaching here. You know, it must be something that's missing, though, Amy. I didn't see that. Where he was adjunct in at Governor State University. So. we'll have to add

Don Parker: 05:40

that, just because I'm not at at jump. Oh,

Amy Vujaklija: 05:44

not yet. So

Joi Patterson: 05:46

something that to work on. That's something this is I would love. The bio is great. And it's hard to believe you know, even looking at you because I know that you really concerned about fitness that you've been an educator since 1997. So not only do you take heart and passion into the work that you do, but you also take that philosophy into your personal life. Absolutely. I really commend you on that we're so excited about today. So tell us more about Dr. Dan Parker beyond your bio. And so I do want to hear more about your connection to the governor State University, even though you're not teaching here yet. And I want to know what kind of drives you from the work that you're doing. I want to hear all that good stuff. You know, you were you gone from the teacher to the administrator. And that had to be a huge transition is so many ways of saying, Oh, I'm I'm going to leave this full time position as a school leader. And now I'm full time. Being a consultant and a trainer do a professional development and a motivational speaker. Let me say that was that in there any? Because you're definitely a motivational speaker. So let's hear more about Dr. Don Parker.

Don Parker: 07:17

Thank you. Well, I just always love sports and fitness growing up. So I was always in youth sports and, you know, play high school sports and things like that. And so I remember, like getting some advice from my high school coaches as far as like, if you want to, like really enjoy your life, you have to find something that you love to do and feel like you never worked a day in your life. I was like, man, well, you know, these are my PE teachers and also my coaches. And I was like, Hey, you guys look pretty happy. You guys look like you enjoy what you're doing. Like, I love fitness. I love sports. This will put me right in the, you know, line of where I want to be. So how can I do what you guys are doing right now. And he told me just to go to college, major physical education and health. So that's exactly what I did. And I remember when I graduated from college that summer, right after I graduated from college, and I'm starting to go on interviews, interview with this high school principal. And he was telling me how, you know, they were looking for someone who can bring fidelity to the PE program. He said right now, we have the kind of PE teachers a scandal like blow the whistle, roll out the ball. They say Do do 20 Push ups, 20 Jumping jacks, and he said they can't do five. So like we need someone who could bring fidelity to a program. He's like you played high school sports, you play college athletics. And I can see over the summer where you came home, he worked at different sports camps and worked at the Chicago Park District as a day camp instructors like you're going to be the perfect fit for our PE program because we really need to teach kids that they can really learn about fitness and learn sports and strategies and learning game. And not just, you know, like recreational games throughout PE so we need you to bring fidelity to the program. I like awesome. What do I say? Like this is what I live for. This is what I dreamed of being a PE teacher teaching sports skills, and things like that. And so I remember two weeks later, he told me to come back for teacher orientation. So I came back for teacher orientation. And there was given us a tour of the school telling us how to make copies. Here's the teacher's lounge. And it came right before before lunch, where they gave every person their upcoming schedule for the new semester. So I was looking at the schedule. It's it first period health, second period health, third period health, fourth period plan, fifth period lunch, and then health health health and I was like why

Joi Patterson: 09:48

that what you signed up, signed

Don Parker: 09:49

up for like, I was like boss, he told me I was gonna be in the gym bringing fidelity to the program teaches sports skills. I was like this is a disconnect. From what we spoke about something, how am I, this first year teacher going to tell the season administrator, that he made a mistake of that schedule, right? This is what I'm thinking in my head, like, how am I gonna get the gall to tell him that he made a mistake on my program? And so I finally mustered up the courage. I said, Excuse me, Mr. Principal, like, Yeah, Don what's going on. I said, I know you got a lot going on. You have to figure out the master schedule. You have to, you know, accommodate other new teachers and make sure that the school is ready for opening day. I like but I think you made a mistake on my schedule. Like, what are you talking about? He said, let me look at. So I picked up my schedule. He pulled down his bifocals, and he was looking at he said, Okay, you got two plans. You got to lunch, right? Now, this is correct. I was like, well, boss, we were in an interview, he was telling me how he was looking forward to me bringing fidelity to the PE program and like really teaching us sports skills and teaching the importance of fitness. Because like, oh, yeah, he's like, there's something that I didn't tell you that they didn't teach you in undergrad. I was like, what's that? He's like, Well, none of the other veteran teachers wanted to teach health because they didn't want to worry about classroom management, they didn't want to want to worry about grading papers, they didn't want to worry about grading, like that. And so in the real world, my friend, there's something that's called seniority, you are the lowest on the totem pole.

Joi Patterson: 11:24

Yes. They don't teach you like it didn't you know that you were this code, you will have a test call to the cheerleading coach, and

Don Parker: 11:36

as a first year teacher, you have to take the leftovers. So he's like, you have a endorsement of health, as long as that PE. So he's like, here's the health classroom was down the hall around the corner, go make yourself at home. So that was, I was not expecting that. However, when I got inside the health classroom, and started meeting with students, and teaching a health curriculum, you know, I just built a great connection with my students. And if you know anything about the health curriculum has a lot to do with social emotional learning, which is so key in education, we talk about teaching the whole child. And so I spent the next five years in a classroom teaching health. And I noticed how I was helping students who had a lot of personal, social and emotional issues, you know, with a lot of the problems that they had, using the health curriculum, to help them deal with grief, help them deal with low self esteem, help them deal with how to have refusal skills, when they are in situations of peer pressure, and just how to make healthy choices that will work out for them, you know, as they went through the decision making process, and students will come up to me say, Hey, Dr. Parker, I really appreciate that lesson on self esteem, because not compare myself to other people, I don't feel it's pretty or two boys downfield, as athletic was popular. But you taught me that comparison is the thief of joy, and how to go and make a list of things that we do well, and the way we think our purposes, and it makes me feel better about myself. And, you know, one young lady came up to me was like, Hey, Dr. Parker, or Hey, Coach, Parker, we appreciate that lesson that we did, on, you know, this five stages of grief. Because recently, I lost my abuela. And my grandmother. And I get very sad when I think about it, but I built a shrine. And I know that she's smiling down on me, I want to live a life that makes me proud. And I was getting affirmations like that pretty regularly. And so at the end of that year, the principal came up to me like, hey, you know, Don, you know, how's the first year going, he's like, I got some great news for you, we have a coach that's taken a job at another school as a hit as a head football coach. And that's going to open up a whole section of PE courses for you. So I just want to let you know that next year, you will be in a gym, I like boss, yeah, give me some courses in the gym. But at the same time, I want to keep majority health because I feel like I'm really making a difference here. So that's kind of how I just fell in love with helping students with their social and emotional needs. And teaching students how to be successful not only in school, but also in life. And so now to transition me to being a department chair of the PE department chair, which got me a taste of administration. And this is where Governor state came into the equation. So I was actually pursuing thinking about pursuing a master's degree in physical education. But one of my teacher mentors said, Well, you know what, that I see that you have some leadership potential. So I want you to consider getting a type 75. And I was like a type what it's like a type 75 I was like what's a type 75. Like, well, that degree would get you in a position where you become, you know, an assistant principal or principal, and you can use some of your leadership skills. So you should sign up for a type 75 program. He's like, I'm actually going to the informational session today. And it was through Governors State type 75 cohort, where we drove to Dodge Elementary School on the west side of Chicago. And it was a cohort of students. And we will be together as a group throughout the next two and a half years to complete our master's degree in Educational Leadership. So I went with him to that meeting, and, you know, sign up for the program, and just add a genuine connection with the professors in a program. So I really enjoyed the program, I really enjoyed my cohort members. And at the end of that two and a half to three years, that's how I earned my Master's degree from Governor State University, and became a Jaguar

Joi Patterson: 15:34

came with Jaguar outstanding, outstanding, so you got that passion for helping people very early, and just just listening to you. It's so calming, it's so easy to listen to you. It's so motivational, so So thank you for sharing, you know, how you started this journey? Can you share just a little bit about the transition between what took place in that transition for you of working a full time job as an administrator, to where you are now?

Don Parker: 16:08

Well, I miss working in the schools, I really do. Because you have opportunity to just build relationships with so many people, with colleagues, with staff, you know, students, with students, parents, and things like that. So I really love that connection. And, you know, being close to the people that I work with, and the people I serve, to really just work with them day in and day out on, you know, just the importance of getting a quality education, how education can just be a life changer for a lot of students and families. And so I noticed that I loved also doing professional development. And I love working with groups and running seminars, while I was teaching what I had learned. So when I was a dean of students, I worked for a district that did tuition reimbursement. And the superintendent basically told me the same thing. And I heard before that, hey, you know, I see you going further. I've just been a dean. So we have this tuition reimbursement program. And so he told me just how it worked. And he encouraged me to sign up for my doctoral degree. And I was like, Okay, I was like, you know, that's something that I was interested in. So I did the program where I got my college tuition reimbursed for earned my doctorate degree. So to make a long story short, the title of my dissertation is, what is the what is the best strategies or methods for Dean of students to use in order to help students be successful not only in school, but also in life. So this was very important because during this time, zero tolerance was prominent in schools. It had got to a point in schools where the teachers and administrators had just become frustrated by student behavior and the lack of pro social behaviors. And you know, the violence in schools. They said, We want exactly zero tolerance policies, in order to deter students from making the same mistakes. However, you know, when I went to do to study, I was looking at what the research said, I had a little bit of bias thinking that if students understood that they can be expelled for misbehavior and disrespect and committing all these infractions, and that they could sit to alternative school, then that would be tearing them from doing these unsavory behaviors. But the research actually says something totally different. What the research says is, in order to get students to make healthy choices, and to be successful in school in life, the number one thing that you have to do with them is number one is build relationships. And number two is authoritative counseling. Okay, so when I presented this, when I did this oral defense, my committee said, Okay, well done. You're right, you're honest research. And I'm glad that you didn't bring bias into this study. Because when we, you know, looked and checked, to see what your research said, we found that the research is littered, littered with built relationships, and wherever what we noticed is that the literature doesn't tell how to build relationships. So to say, in order to earn this doctoral degree, we want you to go back, we want you to find everything that you can find about how adults can build relationships with at the, at the time was called at risk students. So I went back, I did further research, and it wasn't a lot of research at the time. However I draw, like, I was able to draw off my experience on things that I did, as a practitioner, as a teacher, as a dean, on how to build relationships with those students who had a lot of personal emotional issues. And so I included that. And so, my chair said, Okay, Don, we appreciate you adding this to your dissertation. And I said before we give you this degree, we want you to know that we charge you not only just have this degree, but to go out and use it. We want you to go around telling educate Here's how they can build relationships with students how they can do authoritative counseling with students to help students be more successful in school and in life. And so I took that charge seriously, I earned my degree in 2006. And ever since 2006, I've been running professional developments on building relationships with challenging students. And then that kind of evolved into building relationships with students of trauma, you know, helping students build resilience, and have another administrative Academy that's called enhancing relationships through culturally responsive teaching. And so now I'm just working with teachers and educators all across the United States are how to be more trauma informed, how to be more culturally responsive with their students, and how to increase students social emotional learning.

Amy Vujaklija: 20:45

Oh, my goodness. So I'm going to take a leap here that you used, what you found through your practitioner, being a teacher, being an administrator, and the research that you did for your dissertation. And now here you have your first book that was building bridges, engaging students at risk, through the power of relationships, building trust and positive student teacher relationships. Can you tell us about some outcomes from this first book that you had?

Don Parker: 21:24

Sure. So what I didn't tell you is what you guys already know, is that whenever you pursue a doctoral degree, how it can be very challenging. And in order to really stick with it, you have to do something that you're passionate about, you have to do a study on something that's personal to you something that's really important to you, in order to complete the process. Building relationships with students, and really helping students with a lot of personal and emotional issues was very personal to me, because I saw myself in those students. I came from very humble beginnings, being born and raised on the south side of Chicago, you know, witnessing several of my friends drop out of school, you know, get involved in drugs, and gangs and things like that. And I just knew how stroke of influence that my coaches and teachers had on me, to help keep me on a path to understanding that education can be a game changer, to help me have a better life. And so I want to do that very same thing with students. And in order to do that, you really have to build bridges with students, you have to make those connections, you have to build the bridge between their current situation, to how they can be successful in school and successful in life. So that is why I had to title building bridges, to let educators know the importance of building those relationships, building those bridges, connecting students and families with resources to help them be successful ecological approaches, to helping students to academic achievement, and increase their social emotional learning skills, so that they can become not only successful in school, but also successful in life. And so as a result, Amy, Dr. Amy, even when I go out now, you know, I tell educators, I say we you see your students five years from now, or 10 years from now, okay? Do you want them to come up to you or say, Hey, I'm successful in spite of you, or I'm successful because of you. Alright, so I'm successful, even though you didn't believe in me, even though you didn't encourage me along the way. Like, I felt like I should have been encouraged. Or, hey, you know, I'm successful, because you told me that, that you believed in me, therefore, I believed in myself, I stuck with education. And I worked hard to achieve where I am in life. And so as is as an outcome, I live in really the same community in which I've worked, you know, here in the south suburbs, I live here at Evergreen Park. And so as I go out, I see a lot of my former students, and they come up to me, Hey, you know what, Dr. Parker, thank you for, you know, helping me when I was a student, you know, you're encouraged me along the way you let me know that you believed in me, and it's so great to see you running into you. And I get instances like this all the time. So that's kind of a result of the work that we do is we all want to see our students, you know, be successful in life.

Amy Vujaklija: 24:17

But you now have another book coming out, Be the Driving Force, Leading Your School on the Road to Equity. Principals are really the focus of this. And principals either drive school equity, or tap the brakes on it. And the book is asking which kind of leader are you? So what motivated you to write a book on leadership after this very powerful research you've done on relationships? Okay.

Don Parker: 24:50

Well, I have to give a plug to Governors State, because when I was in Governor state master's program on how to become an educational leader, alright, we just learned so many practical things, of course, we learned a lot about leadership theory, we learned a lot about organizational structures learn a lot about managing change. And so when I learned these things, you know, I held on true to them. So when I became a practitioner, I used this these evidence based practices as I became a school leader. And also, I learned a lot of things just through experience on things that, you know, good leaders did in order to improve the school. And so I did these things. And as a result, I saw student achievement, I start an increase in my school culture. And I just thought, increasing the trust that the community had for the school. However, when I spoke with other educational leaders, and other school staff, and they would tell me about the toxic school culture that they were part of, and you guys are all familiar with teacher attrition, how prevalent it is. Now, according to Richard Ingersoll, who's a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania, he says 44% of teachers leave the profession within the first five years. And that number goes up to 50% of teachers serving Title One schools, and then that number increases to 70% for students who work in largest areas with the highest concentration of students of color. And so sometimes we go into some of these schools, and you'll see the toxic school culture, you understand why? So I said, I want to write a book that will help educational leaders understand the importance of equity. And what equity is, is giving people what they need in order to reach their full potential, or giving people what they need. In order to be successful. And someone school, we have to make sure that we give teachers what they need, so that they can do their job. They need resources, they need support. And students, they need so much emotional support, academic support, and things like that. And so how can school leaders be the drivers of equity be the driving force, in order to create equitable school climates, where our students and staff have exactly what they need to reach their full potential?

Joi Patterson: 27:13

Right? You know, I really love that you talk about relationships is so important. And I brought this up once before in a meeting, I think that every higher ed program who has a class on classroom management need to change the focus, it really needs to be on building relationships. So if you do have that class on classroom management, that's part of the challenge is that we're trying to manage people and manage behavior, and none of us like being managed, right. And so it really should be not just a name change, but a focus on building relationships, you know, I have to pay homage to my daughter who's a teacher, but she believe it or not, she's been teaching for about 13-14 years now. And she actually love teaching. And she works in a very high poverty school district. And she loves teaching. And that connection is so important. You know, she's always talking to parents, of former students, they're still calling her getting her advice. And it's just like, that's just a testament of you building relationship, not with the child, but the entire family. And my husband, he's retired now, but he mostly enjoy teaching. And I saw how important relationships were when kids would come to the house. These are eighth graders will come to the house on Saturdays and say, Can Mr. Brown come out and play? They wants to know, my husband could come out and play and play basketball and play with them? Like, oh, okay, let me see. And play. And, you know, that just speaks a lot to that whole coaching mentality. If you can develop a relationship with the kids, you don't have to manage them. And then that's where the listening comes in. Right? And the modeling comes in, I want to talk about some of the components of your new book about what really goes in to creating a successful school and successful student outcome because everybody is in it for that reason, even though that's not the outcome. You know, that's always the goal. And I always look at it, you know, you have these four players, you know, you got your parents, you got your students, you got your teachers, you got school leaders and of the four and I have kind of my take on when I look at responsibility and accountability, who should be the most accountable or responsible? I don't know I should if I should tell you, and I will tell you, I always put on this on parents. Mm. And the reason that I put all this on parent is because I see how parents can make a difference. My son went to a private school, where the teacher, many of the teachers weren't even licensed. But the teachers wanted to be there. And the parents that were paying for their child to go there, put a lot of pressure on the school, right? There was no slacking and leadership, there was no slacking and teaching. And there definitely wasn't any slacking for your students, because who wants to pay that your kids gonna get all C's and B's. So parents can be extremely powerful. But not all parents are empowered. Because when you're talking about sending your kids to a private school, you're talking about those parents who can, and may already have a sense of empowerment. We're talking about some underserved kids, they don't necessarily have unfortunately, these parents who feel empowered to say, I need you, I'm gonna make you do right by my kids. So we are reliant on teachers and school leaders, right. Oh, tell us why you place such an emphasis on school leaders in this book.

Don Parker: 31:18

Okay. I'm sure you familiar with the phrase that it starts at the top. Yep. Okay. So leaders really set the foundation and provide the support in order to create a climate in a culture that drives the vision of the school. And once you set that, that culture, and once you just set the expectation, it kind of lets the staff and the students understand what the expectations are, are how we are supposed to perform or behave in what manner of attitudes that we have when we step into this school. Alright, I share this story with you. So when I got my first principal position, it was at a school where the superintendent called me into the office before the school year started. And she said, Okay, Dr. Parker, I want to let you know, the kind of climate that you're about to step into, as the school year, she told me that the principal who was there before me, was dismissed in February of the previous school year, how the toxic climate how he created was so bad, that they couldn't even wait for him to finish his contract release at the end of the school year. And then she told me how there was a racial divide in the building, you know, amongst the white teachers and a black teachers. And as she told me, it was further divided, because there were cliques within the school. And the school recently went from being two schools and one where it was K through five, and then six through 10. So there was a K through five elementary school with one principal on one side of the building within a junior high was 6 through 8. On the other side of the building, however, in a recent like two years, they had combined it to make it just a K to eight building. But she told me how there was a divide between the junior high teachers and the K through five teachers, or there was always a battle of resources, you know, encore periods and things like that. Oh, you know, it was hard for them to get on the same page in order to have a smooth school because everybody wanted to do what was best for them, as opposed to putting the students first. And then she told me there was also a divide, as far as the age, they were ages. And because they recently did a contract, and a contract, favor the veteran teachers more so than first and five year teachers. Right. But then this is the worst part what she told me. She said, Dr. Parker, that status thing about this is that the teachers has lost confidence in themselves in order to grow the students academically, and help the students with their behavior. And as if they've lost the belief that the students can learn at high levels, and that the students can actually experience student success and student achievement. And she said, what I want you to do is I want you to go in there and concentrate on the culture of the school. I want you to improve the culture. When she told me this, I said, Okay, so what I found out Dr. Patterson, and Dr. Amy, is that I was walking into a school where the teachers didn't want to be there. The students didn't want to be there. The parents didn't want to send their children there. And I had to think twice and say, oh my god, do I want to be

Amy Vujaklija: 34:40

right, what a challenging situation. That

Don Parker: 34:42

is the situation but then I had to check myself, is it okay, I'm here to do a job because we have to create a better climate for the students and for the stem. So I started having small group focus meetings with small groups of teachers and individual teachers. I kind of asked them questions is about, you know, tell me your experience after school. Okay, tell me what are the best things about school? Okay, tell me what are the things that we have to fix and improve about the school? How can you become an integral part in helping us achieve some of these things, and just letting the teachers know that I was there, you know, in order to create a better school culture, and that I wanted to see them be successful. And so, after doing that, after building relationships with teachers, you know, after building trust, and letting them know that, you know, this is a team thing, we're in it together, it was a handful of teachers who also really wanted to drive this change. And so meeting with these teachers, you know, before the school year started, I said, we need a slogan, we need something that's just gonna set the tone for the school, to bring us all on the same page. And so works together as a team, we came up with a slogan we are wanting. And so what I did was a purchased T shirts for every staff member in a building, where on the front was the school name and a school logo. And on the back with that motto, we are one. So at the is the first day of Teacher Institute, as I'm having time to work my entire staff, introduce myself, let them know that our new slogan is we aren't one that didn't know that we understand it, this building has been through a lot of trauma. Okay, but now we're here to move forward. We understand what happened in the past. Now, let's address that quickly. But then let's talk about where we want to go. And just set the tone for we are one, how our students deserve the best of us, you know, set the tone for professionalism, what you know, is apart is, you know, we talked about teachers and students and teacher expectations. Alright, the teacher always tell the students what the teacher expects from students as far as behavior as far as academic achievement. However, a lot of teachers miss, letting the students know what they can expect from the teacher. So I first told the staff what they can expect from me, you can expect the listener, err, you can expect support, you can expect me to get you the resources that you need, you can expect me to support you in working with your students and working with the parents, I'm going to have your back, okay, you can expect that from me. But now, then I told them what I expected from them. Okay. So now that we have this understanding of what the expectations are, and what they can also expect from me. Now moving forward, we're continuing to establish relationships, established trust. So we're all working together, to help our students to be successful. And let parents know that we're committed to doing the best by your children. And that was the tone that I set at the school when I became principal.

Amy Vujaklija: 37:44

Oh, wow. And you have a chapter in your new book, focusing on adjusting the school climate. And what I really like about the structure of the book as a whole, is that each chapter is what the research says, what it looks like in the real world. There's a chapter conclusion, questions for reflection. And in chapter five, there's a survey on school climate, but other chapters have surveys that are relevant to the chapter topic. Can you tell us about how you landed on that structure and how it works for what you're presenting?

Don Parker: 38:26

Right? Well, 100%, the reason I use that structure is because, you know, I didn't want to be a person that just talked the talk, I want to let them know that I've actually did this work. And I didn't want to just share different evidence based strategies or different stories from my experience, I want to go beyond that. And I want to give them something that they can take and do like practical strategies of things that they can do in their schools to create more equitable environments for staff and students. So for instance, my first chapter, I tell the story, how my mom got a new set of keys for her car, she had lost her car keys, she asked my dad to make her second set of car keys. And so my dad did that went to the hardware store, brought her back this set of keys for her car. She tried to get the keys to work, but she was unable to get the key into the ignition in order to start the car. So she was unsure if they were the correct keys. So she had to ask my dad to get confirmation that they were the correct keys. And once my dad said, yeah, these new key sometimes they're cut kind of rough. You know, sometimes they have to be a little bit broken in order to go in smooth. So he said, you know, just understand is the correct key. You just have to play with it a little bit to get it to work. And so knowing now that she had the confidence that it was the correct key. You know, she needed to use a little bit more force to get that kid in initially, but she needs to be a little more gentle to finagle the key in order to get the Keto start. She knew that she would work because she had confidence in conformation, that was a correct key. So therefore, she wasn't going to give up on that key. And she did what she had to do in order to get that key to work to stay Are there engine. So I use that story to let educators know, you have to have confidence and belief that you have what it takes in order to be a strong leader in order to create equitable climates. And then I'll go into what the research says about a lot of leaders having an impostor syndrome, or a lot of leaders being discouraged, because they feel like the problems are too great in order for them to overcome. Then I said, I tell them what the research says about building your confidence as a leader, right about having what you call leader efficacy, believing in yourself and your abilities. And then what actually got you to this point, as far as your past experiences, relying on them to build your confidence that you can have success also going forward. And then I let them know, when I was a school leader, well, my confidence was down when I was experienced impostor syndrome, things that I did, as far as having positive statements, looking back at my past achievements, and having a competence that I can continue to grow as a leader. So I gave them practical strategies of things that they can do in order to build their leader efficacy and their leadership confidence. And then I told them how I took that confidence. And I started doing those things to become more of a confident leader. And then at the end of the chapter, I kind of concluded, by letting them know that you have to believe that you are the leader, and you're placed in the position where you are to create the kind of change that has to happen for you to have a successful school. But then I talk about how cars technology are different. And seldom do you see that traditional key that's used? Now, most keys? Most keys never fall in, those cars are pushed to start. So then as school leaders, what push do you need to start believing in yourself and boosting your confidence to unlock the potential of your students and staff to get your school on the road to equity? And that's how I in that chapter, is by asking what push do you need to start believing in yourself?

Joi Patterson: 41:56

I love that. I love that, you know, some. So often we get caught up in the day, you know, I can imagine when you went into that school, as the administrator, you know, you can really get caught up in the day of responding to emergencies. Because trust me, there's enough emergencies, especially like you when you've been gifted with a school that may not be a high performing school. And you're just reacting. And you're doing your best to react. So how do and I think this is very important for administrators talk about how administrator ship, just like you talked about with your mother, once you have that competence, how do you shift from reacting to the day to integrating Effective School Leadership Research and everyday practice with

Don Parker: 42:52

two things. So our there's a quote that says activity doesn't mean achievement. Okay. And then there's another quote that says, don't prioritize your schedule, or schedule your priorities. Yes. So as a school leader, that talks about the importance of vision of school vision. And so one of my chapters I talk about, I use the analogy, like all throughout the book, that's the reason that the book is named, you know, be the driving force, because all throughout the book, there's an analogy that goes with either driving a car, or the systems and the way that cars work, in order to keep driving and moving forward. So when I talk about my chapter, or school vision, I'll talk about how when they teach you how to drive because I was also a driver's ed teacher, they teach you how to aim high and steering. So basically, what that means is they teach you don't just look one or two cars ahead, you have to look as far down the road as you can. Because as a driver, you have to be aware of certain hazards that may be in a row, but you have to be aware of, you know, the traffic and things like that in order to stay safe. And so as a leader, when you have a vision of where you're going, okay? That vision dictates your actions, it keeps you aligned, it keeps you focused, it keeps your attention on the end picture of where you have to go and things that you have to do in order to reach your destination. And so, all those emergencies are those fires that you have to put out there just distractions, as drivers, they teach you, you shouldn't be a distracted driver. Okay, of course, we have to deal with those distractions. Of course, we have to, you know, negotiate them and things of that nature. But at the same time, our vision has to be a vision and a focus has to be set on the end destination of where we're trying to get to. And so that's why I talked about the importance of a leader of Envision because when you have that you understand these distractions, you understand these things that, you know, maybe hazards in the road to get to where you need to be at the end of the day, is like leaders at that level. Yes, you get paid to do the work. moreso, you get paid more to think and be a problem solver. So you can get the school to the vision that that you and your stakeholders have as far as where the school needs to be. And so that chapter talks about, how do we involve the school community, our stakeholders, and come up with a shared vision of the school? And then also, how do we understand how do we help others understand the role that they play, and the part that they play in helping us reach that vision. And so that talks a lot about delegation and distributed leadership. And so as a leader, how you're focused on empowering others, because there's a quote that says, becoming a leader is about experience success for yourself. Or being successful is about accomplishments that you have, however, being a leader is about helping others experience success and making accomplishments. So when we can empower our staff, and they can do a lot of these, you know, things, you know, that has to be done, while we just set the vision, and give them the vision and the direction on which to go. So now, it's a shared work, where the leader doesn't get bogged down, because they understand that we have staff who also have skills, and we leverage those skills, so that the whole team is moving forward.

Amy Vujaklija: 46:22

I have loved this conversation so much, I'd love to just sit and talk about each and every chapter, to be honest. And we began this podcast by spending some time, as we often do, discussing some issues in education, you were talking about school culture, and what you really had to do to, to make that shift to help that school come together and be one. So we do like to bring some solutions to the table in our conversations, and your book certainly does provide a lot of strategies. Could you have a one strategy that a school leader can implement tomorrow, that would make an incremental type of difference in their school building, they're struggling, what, what is it is the first focus,

Don Parker: 47:15

okay. So the first focus is to, you know, think about what you want to accomplish the things that has to happen in order for that accomplishment to come to fruition. And now, what you have to do now is just be intentional about setting aside time to focus on those areas. So in other words, it's about systems and structures in schools and businesses and things like that, in order to, you know, ensure that things are working well. And then, of course, Jim Collins talks about going from good to great having the right people on a bus. So one thing that I did was, I set up very needed intervention in my, in my school for stimulants. And so, social emotional learning was very important how students needed us to pay attention to the social emotional learning. Because at this time, I will be honest with you, is that too many educators, I eaten soup with the fork. And what I mean by that is, students have so many social emotional learning issues that are not being addressed. The research from the National Institute of resilience is that 80% of students who suffer from at least one adverse childhood experience by the time they're 18. And so, it also goes on to say that 60% of students will experience at least three adverse childhood experiences by the time that 80 But the problem here, Amy is that 72% of students according to the National resilience Institute, 72% of students who feel that they need mental health care support, do not receive it. So now we have students that are suffering from anxiety, depression, and they need that mental support, but it's not there. So what I did was I put a system in place where students can wear staff content, mortar students, social emotional learning. And so we had a school day where we had eight periods. And we had a 15 minute homeroom period at the beginning of the school day. So what I did was, I work with my union leader in my building, to say, if we can do this small tweak, we could spend more time helping students with their social emotional learning. And so the tweet was if we shave five minutes of every period, what you ate, all right, that will give us about 40 minutes throughout the school day, if we just shave five minutes of each class period. And we'll take that five minutes. We'll put it at the beginning of the school day. And so that will give us 40 minutes couple with 15 minutes home. And what that did was that gave us an hour every morning to do social emotional learning activities with our students. We did this every Monday morning. Alright. So every Monday morning, we changed the bell schedule. So when the students come back from what the research says is that Monday mornings are the most multiple times, you know, for students and teachers

Joi Patterson: 50:02

I currently now call Facebook Monday. Right?

Don Parker: 50:07

Because all that baggage that happened over the weekend, all that trauma is spilling over into the school on Monday morning. Yes. So now we're creating time and space, where we can do Monday morning meetings, Monday morning classroom circles, where students can, you know, kind of share, you know, what their weekend was, like, some of the issues that they're dealing with. And I quit my teachers with this time and space to now have these conversations with students. And I quit my social worker to give each teacher just a quick lesson. And so we will have Words of the Week. And our Words of the Week will be words like empathy, respect, resilience, compassion. And so we started off each Monday morning with the Word of the Week, and my teachers just did a lesson on what that word meant. And so we will start on Monday morning off with circle time, and the teacher will give the definition and use that word in a sentence. And then we say, Okay, well, we start off each meeting with Just name one word that describes how you feel at this point. And then the students will go around with the talking piece, and they would just say one word. And then a teacher would dive deep in when she needed to, well, how come you sleep beat? Or, you know, how come you're sad? And the students would get to, you know, say why? And then for that, for us, well, we need what we knew. After these meetings, now the students who need to be referred to the social worker, could be referred to the social worker. So you have these small group meetings, so the social worker could find out what's going on, to see what social support that student needed. And then we would go more into the conversation about what compassion looks like. Then at the end, we will wrap up with going around the circle, asking each student okay, what will you do to demonstrate compassion this week? Well, let's say the word respect, okay, what will you do this week, to demonstrate respect, each student will have a tendency and what they will do to show compassion, which is so respect. And then we will say, Okay, well, let's set the tone for our week. And what that did was, it just helped us avoid so many of those issues throughout the week, that would normally happen. And so this, I show, school leaders, something small like that, what they can do, to attend to their students social emotional learning skills, and all throughout the book, you know, to be in the driving force. I give leaders evidence based practices that they can do in order to promote school equity in their schools to make a better school culture and climate for staff and students

Joi Patterson: 52:37

Oh, wow, what a wonderful way to end this conversation. Like Amy, I could talk to you all day, and we can delve into every chapter. But this is all we have for now. So we want to have you back. We want to thank you. This has been amazing. Just listening to everything and listening to the strategies, I think they will go a long way. You know, I think you need a hotline, Dr. Don, you need a hot my, where administrators can call you on the spot like how do you

Don Parker: 53:11

Dr. Patterson, I will tell you, people can visit my website at Dr. Don parker.com. And I have a contact me button. And if they just hit contact me, they can send me a message. And I'm always sure to follow up with people who contact me. Because that's what I want to do. My motto of my business is bringing out the best in people and bringing out the best in teachers so that they can bring out the best in their students is the same thing, bringing out the best in school leaders so that they can bring out the best in their staff. So I have workshops, and different things like that, where I can come out to different schools, and do professional development. I have meetings where I meet with principals, and just give them tips and strategies on things that they can do to improve their school culture and climate. And so I'm here to help. And I'm an open book. So I'm willing to share anything from my research, from my experience, to also empower school leaders and empower teachers so we can be the best that we can be for our students.

Amy Vujaklija: 54:11

How much I really appreciate that we will put your website in our show notes, as well as links to your previous book and the one that's coming out. So thank you so much for being with us today. Then

Don Parker: 54:25

I want to thank you guys for having me. And thank you for all that you do to also empower school leaders and just empower people in general so that we can continue to provide a quality education for our students.

Amy Vujaklija: 54:38

Thank you for listening to teaching and leading with Dr. Amy and Dr. Joi. Visit our website at govst.edu/teaching and leading podcast to see the show notes from this episode.

Joi Patterson: 54:57

We appreciate Governor state universe or cities work behind the scenes to make publishing possible Stay tuned for more episodes with Dr Amy and Dr Joi