January 20, 2021

Beginner’s Mindset in Leadership

The beginner’s mindset can be an essential tool when approaching leadership. What is the beginner’s mindset? When you approach leadership as a beginner, you see possibility and free yourself of imagined restrictions. You embrace the idea that you do not know everything. You show humility and listen intentionally to your collaborators. You see yourself as a learner and not solely as the holder of knowledge. You ask questions from a position of inquiry, rather than a position of certainty: I wonder, what if, how might we?

The beginner’s mindset invites a sense of wonder that we often see in our children. You look at things as though you are seeing them for the first time. This allows you to find inspiration and see the awe in the seemingly ordinary. 

The “I don’t know mind’ allows us to embrace being uncomfortable and the unknown. This year more than any other has taught us to expect the unexpected.

January 6, 2021

Making Resolutions or Setting Intentions?

The tragic events at the Capitol building in Washington D.C. further highlighted the rampant racism, injustices, and inequities that have plagued this nation. There are few moments in school leadership where there is absolute clarity of right and wrong. Now is the time to take a close look at who you are, your values, your aspirations, your hopes, dreams, and intentions. What you do and what you say matters and should be grounded in an understanding of our human interconnectedness. 

Every new year, we try in our personal and professional lives to start anew, making resolutions and promises to ourselves about how we will be different and who we will become. We make exercise and diet goals. We promise to spend more time with loved ones and be more productive and efficient at work. By February, we tire out and have dropped all resolve to accomplish our new tasks. What if instead of creating these long to-do lists each new year, we think of our intentions and start from there? 

October 16, 2020

Making Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Making decisions as a leader can be complicated. Sometimes, we try to make everyone happy. Other times, we feel constrained by time and other factors, making a decision in a vacuum. Although these are unprecedented times, decision making is a constant in all organizations and especially crucial in organizations that involve children and families. Setting intentions, establishing goals, considering equity and inclusion issues, bringing in other voices, and reflecting are all crucial elements of a strong decision-making process. 

Below are some questions to consider as you navigate this year of constant and fast-paced decision making.

  • How do I identify the decision that needs to be made?
  • Have I established my intentions and referred back to my intention as I make this decision? Your intentions may be: holding the child at the center of the work and upholding the mission of the organization.
  • What are my year-long goals and how do I align with them? 
September 29, 2020

Challenging Conversations: An Opportunity, Not a Burden

The happenings of the world are causing increased anxiety in so many of us. Schools are creating plans, backup plans, and backup plans for those backup plans. The landscape of education has changed and so have the rhythms of the typical communication flow. Educators and administrators are overwhelmed with emails, texts, and zoom meetings in addition to all their regular daily work. Educators and leaders need to be more responsive, thoughtful, and empathic than ever before and simultaneously manage heightened communication both in volume, intensity, and urgency than ever. As remote learning, hybrid models, and all the procedures involved are new to families and schools, we all are experiencing shifting expectations and managing a lot of disappointment. We are having challenging conversations.

Challenging conversations in schools have many components: the emotions, the intentions, the actual matter to be discussed, the existing relationship amongst the people and of course the child at the center of the discussion.

September 14, 2020

Managing Communication Overload

Relationships are the most important part of schools whether remote or in person. Therefore, it is vital to keep on top of communications as a way to build responsive and trusting relationships, especially during these uncertain times. When a parent is struggling with supporting their child with remote learning and their communication to the school has not been answered within 24 hours, their trust in the school may dwindle and their anxiety may increase. If a teacher who is unsure about a tech issue on SeeSaw, does not hear back from the Tech Director right away, their ability to teach is compromised. All the inner workings of a classroom and a school are more transparent than ever as parents sit beside their children in the virtual classroom and listen in on their day. Parents are being asked to do more than ever to support their child’s learning. All this leads to more questions which lead to more emails and the dreaded ever-increasing red number next to the mail icon.

July 7, 2020

Black Lives Matter, Brown Silence Hurts

PRI Educational Consulting is committed to supporting Black educational leaders, teachers, and staff and collaborating with schools and educators to develop anti-racist curriculum and resources for the K-12 grades.  As I watch the news each day, I am sickened in my heart, mind, and body by the injustices directed towards the Black community.  Like millions of other Americans, I am pained and outraged by the deaths of Black people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others due to the systemic racism in our country.  With a grieving heart and a receptive mind, I stand with and support the Black community in the ongoing fight towards justice and towards that more perfect union outlined in the Preamble to the United States Constitution. Black lives matter. Through thoughtful and intentional curriculum design and coaching, marginalized students can be seen, heard, and guided to reach their full potential.

As a South Asian immigrant, I acknowledge that I benefit from the work of activists, predominantly Black but also White, who fought so bravely for centuries and still continue to fight for civil rights in critical areas including voting, housing, education, employment, and marriage. 

May 19, 2020

Truths or Contradictions

While reading Dare to Lead by Brené Brown,  I was struck by this idea that we can embrace seemingly opposing qualities to become daring leaders. Brown talks about having a strong back and soft front to be a daring leader. She goes on to say that you can stay grounded in your confidence, setting boundaries and stay vulnerable and curious at the same time. The idea of being strong and soft can seem like opposites or even contradictions. This idea of holding two opposite ideas together and both can be true and valid is so valuable not just to being a leader but also to being human.

More recently in my career, I have realized that you do not have to stick to the binary of certain qualities. You can be both strong and soft, tough and caring, scared and brave, structured and flexible. As a beginning teacher, I believed more so in the binary.

April 28, 2020

Remote Learning/Parenting/Teaching Resources

Below is a list of books/podcasts/articles/games and other resources that I think would be helpful to manage this unprecedented time in our lives as educators and parents. There are resources for educators and parents below. I gathered these resources from sites that I find helpful as an educator: Common Sense Media, Inquiry Partners, Ten Percent Happier, The Reading and Writing Project, Parent Map and more. Inquiry, Mindfulness, curiosity, and child development are key components to the resources below. 

Educator Resources for Remote Learning:

The Reading and Writing Project Micro Workshops

The Reading and Writing Project Padlets and Resources

Virtual and Remote Learning Opportunities for Education for Sustainability, Cloud Institute

What is the role of Inquiry during a global pandemic?

“Wide Open School is a free collection of the best online learning experiences for kids curated by the editors at Common Sense. There is so much good happening, and we are here to gather great stuff and organize it so teachers and families can easily find it and plan each day.

April 14, 2020

The Little Engine That Can

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” 

― John Dewey

In this time of remote learning, we are all adjusting to doing things differently. As experienced educators and as parents who are newly experiencing becoming teachers, the above statement from John Dewey could not be more important at this time. Many parents are finding themselves stressed out about teaching their child new content or a new way to solve a math problem. Experienced educators who are immersed in hands-on and inquiry-based learning practices are wondering how to teach new content through remote learning. Yikes! These are significant challenges. 

These challenges are also opportunities! Let’s remember that ‘doing” is how we truly learn! When I think back to my elementary school experiences, not much is memorable. However, I do remember the few times a teacher took what was considered back then ‘an out of the box’ approach and had us actually do something.

April 11, 2020

10 Tips for Parents Teaching Their Kids At Home

When our son, who is now almost 21, was 6 years old and struggling to learn to read in first grade, my husband turned to me and said, “You are a first grade teacher, can’t you teach him to read?!” It seems so simple. I should have been able to just teach him as an experienced educator myself. Yet, there is something different about teaching your own child. For 26 years, I worked with other people’s children and taught thousands of students to read, write and solve math problems. When it came to my own two children, I could not even help with homework without stress levels rising. As an educator and a Lower School Director, I counseled the families of the students I worked with to leave the school work and teaching to us. Let home life be enjoyable and fun for you and your child. Do not stress your relationship.