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Andy Greene is a transformative principal at Candlewood Middle School. We talk mostly about professional practice and professional development. Andy is a master at these two things. I learned so much from Andy, and I am so thankful he took the time to speak with me.

Here are some bullet points from our discussion:

• How he ensures that teachers are continuous learners

• How he ensures that faculty meetings are like miniature college courses.

• How he uses backwards design for his faculty meetings.

• How he ensures that teachers come to faculty meeting and make sure that they all get something out of it.

• Mission and Vision Document

• Professional Expectations Document

• How he helps everyone see they are a member of a team.

• What it means to bow low.

• This:

• How he has hard conversations with teachers and balances that with positive feedback.

• When he decides to divulge information to teachers about how they are perceived.

• The importance of having staff that can tell you how things are really playing out among the staff.

• The intentional things Andy does to make sure his staff feels that they are in a comfortable learning atmosphere.

• Seek first to understand before being understood.

• How Andy would approach a staff that he needs to “clean up.”

He sent a bunch of stuff over to me, and sharing is caring, so here it is for you. First, he sent two files that I read from in the interview:

Expectations 2014 (Word Doc) - This document goes over the expectations he has for the staff at his school. Updated as often as needed, and discussed just as often. There are some great gems in this document.

Mission and Values (Word Doc) - This document discusses what the mission and values of Candlewood Middle School are. Again, there is some great information here.

PLCs (Word Doc) - We didn’t get a chance to discuss this document, but it includes a lot of great information about PLCs and some great quotes to get people thinking about them.

The following are emails that Andy sends out to his staff after each mini-university-course faculty meeting. You can tell that he spends time thinking about what to say to his staff, how to motivate them, and encourage a culture of learning. He pretty much never lets up.

    Good discussion on objectives yesterday…[refer to the packet from yesterday for other examples]

A personal example to help clarify!

Big Idea For the Year-Staff will understand that standards are not curriculum: curriculum needs to reflect best practice and user needs while also honoring standards. Essential Question-What is understanding?